Surprises, pleasant and otherwise

The Iranian delegation wanted to return home from Vienna with maximum centrifuges and minimum sanctions. And also, if possible, with a deal.

It went back home with maximum centrifuges but only a smidgen of sanctions relief. What was ultimately agreed upon in Vienna was a seven-month deadline extension on a deal. Tehran had hoped for more.

The American delegation wanted to significantly reduce the number of centrifuges and gradually ease sanctions on Iran, all to be accomplished within a determined timeframe in which Iran would be required to show its trustworthiness. The Americans, too, wanted a deal . Washington had also hoped for more.

In Jerusalem, however, Israeli officials were concerned the Vienna talks would bring bad tidings, and were pleasantly surprised (that no bad deal was signed). The world is perhaps a tad naive, but not to that extent. Iran needs much more than a smiling president to erase years of secrets and lies.

The big headlines yesterday, though, did not come from Vienna. They came from Washington. President Barack Obama woke up Monday to a morning without a deal with Iran, but also without a secretary of defense. It is actually the Iranians who are mourning the first victim of the American midterm elections. Chuck Hagel, the Vietnam War hero, opposed attacking Iran's nuclear facilities.

The reason behind Obama's decision to oust Hagel, however, can be found on a different but not so distant front: Iraq. It's reasonable to say the Iraq issue brought the sides closer, but also drove them further apart. Two senators, one an up-and-coming Democrat from Illinois (Obama); the other, a grizzled Republican from Nebraska (Hagel), both opposed the war in Iraq. The young senator became president and brought Hagel with him to the Pentagon. These were the days when Obama still believed the world was a place where you could bring soldiers back home and drastically cut the defense budget.

Obama, meanwhile, came to discover war. While Hagel also dislikes war, he at least knows what one looks like. As time passed, a new threat emerged: the Islamic State group. While Obama miscalculated the threat, Hagel emphasized it much more than others. Later, he even lambasted the Obama administration's policies in Syria and became very close with Israel. Obama did not approve of everything Hagel did and appointed generals to positions that bypassed the authority of the defense secretary.

The midterm elections led Obama to realize he only has one quarter of his second term left to make his mark. He recently began firing in all directions: a climate accord with China; executive action on immigration legislation; objection to the Keystone oil pipeline, meant to pump oil from Canada to the U.S., and the most recent shot, Hagel's removal.

Obama is firing away, but in January he will meet at least 53 Republican gunslingers in Congress, who may seek to exact a certain amount of retribution on Capitol Hill for their ousted fellow Republican, despite the fact that he jumped ship to serve under Obama. These 53, however, know that their real enemies -- neither Hagel nor Obama -- remain Iran and Islamic State.

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