Intelligence Squared US arranged one of its excellent debates on the upper West Side of Manhattan this week. The debate had as its subject the merits of President Obama's pending arrangement with Iran. Addressing the proposition that the deal is good for the United States, the debate matched Philip Gordon and Amb. Thomas Pickering (for the affirmative) with Michael Doran and Mark Dubowitz (for the negative), with moderator John Donvan cracking the whip in impressive fashion. The audience votes on the proposition before and after the debate; the team that maximally moves the dial is declared the winner.
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Gordon and Pickering's defense of the deal is, in my opinion, devastating to their case. Mark Dubowitz's critique of the deal — of its "seven deadly flaws" — is particularly devastating to the case for the deal, such as it is. If you don't make time for anything else, make time for Dubowitz's argument at 34:00-41:00.
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