It’s often the case with bullies: you give them what they want, and they despise and disrespect you even more for it. Such is apparently the case with Iran. We delivered a pretty lax nuclear deal to Iran, one which almost guarantees that they will have nuclear weapons very soon. And how did they respond to us? Like this:

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the highest authority in Iran, told supporters on Saturday that U.S. policies in the region were “180 degrees” opposed to Iran’s, in a Tehran speech punctuated by chants of “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.”

Under the accord reached in Vienna last week, Iran will be subjected to long-term curbs on its nuclear program in return for the lifting of U.S., European Union and U.N. sanctions. The deal was signed by the United States, Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia.

Well, shucks. John Kerry’s response to Iran’s hatred and opposition was especially pathetic. You can almost read it on his face. I remember that same look of puzzled dejection on the face of one of my middle school friends, let’s call him Blake. He thought he would get on the good side of the mean kid, let’s call him Billy, by giving Billy his fruit snacks at lunch one time. Billy didn’t like Blake any more after that. He still called him mean names, stupid ones like “Blake the Flake,” and he expected Blake’s fruit snacks every single day after that. Or there would be consequences. When Blake found out that his diplomacy had been interpreted as weakness, he put on about the same face John Kerry was wearing when he realized the same thing.

It’s all a pity really. I wish it were possible to be reasonable and permissive with Muslim countries. But they don’t respect reasonable and permissive policies. They abuse them. That’s a generalization of course, but I’d rather be guilty of an informal fallacy than be even partially responsible for a nuclear holocaust. So there’s that.