During the debate about the Iran deal a year ago, one of Obama's/Kerry's arguments ran essentially as follows.  Sanctions were no longer sustainable.  European companies were so eager to do business with Iran that their governments would  drop the sanctions anyway.  America's unilateral sanctions wouldn't be able to dam the roaring torrent of upcoming business activity with Iran.  The U.S. dollar would collapse as the world's reserve currency, and the world economic order as we know it would come to a screeching, catastrophic end.

Fast-forward to the present: Secretary Kerry is no longer busy warning us that "sanctions don’t just sting in one direction ... [rather, t]hey also impose costs on those who forego the commercial opportunities in order to abide by them. ... [Other countries] will not join us if we’re demanding even greater sacrifices and threatening their businesses and banks because of a choice we made and they opposed."  Rather, he frantically flies to European capitals, tearfully begging companies there to start doing business with Iran and not to worry about non-nuclear sanctions imposed by the U.S. on Iran.  He humbly prostrates himself before Iran's foreign minister, assuring him that the Obama administration does everything in its power to get Iran all the business it wants (and he's sure right about that!).

How did it come to this?  Obama's and Kerry's dire warnings of the inrush of European business into Iran, and of futility of U.S.-only sanctions, did not materialize.  In fact, European companies are eyeing with caution the remaining sanctions and are in no rush to invest in Iranian projects.  So Kerry and Obama deliberately lied, or else they deluded themselves.  Either way, they now need a way out – and they seek it by making their false prophecies come true.

It is understandable that politicians lie and engage in spin.  They cannot abide the thought that they were proven wrong.  But there are different ways to save face.  It is one thing to invent excuses out of thin air.  Yet aiding, abetting, and strengthening the enemy, as done by Obama and Kerry, so as to prove that their warnings of Iran's insurmountable diplomatic and economic strength made capitulation to Iranian demands necessary and inevitable is a different thing entirely.  It is a face-saving step too far.