Read the original letter in the Boston Globe.
Your editorial on the nuclear agreement with Iran (“An imperfect Iran deal is better than no deal at all”), while otherwise sensible, incompletely assesses the implications of the agreement by ignoring Afghanistan, Iraq, and the role Secretary of State John Kerry has played over his years in public service. Given that for nearly 14 years the United States has been in a near-constant state of war, US diplomacy must look to resolve conflicts peacefully to relieve the burdens on both our budget and our troops.
No one knows this better than Kerry, given his own military service and his years as an arms-control advocate in the Senate. When considering whether to support the accord with Iran, members of Congress must consider the overall US international-security position and the utter lack of plausible alternatives to defuse the nascent Iranian nuclear arsenal.
-Mark S. Sternman, Somerville
The writer worked for Senator Kerry for seven years, and serves on the board of directors of the Council for a Livable World.