Citing her record as an opponent of the Iraq war, Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (D – Ariz.) expressed her opposition to the nuclear deal with Iran Thursday in a press release. While Sinema praised the administration for its efforts to make a deal she concluded that “ultimately the risks inherent in this deal outweigh the rewards.”

I was a principled opponent of the Iraq War and spoke out early against the U.S. invasion. The Iraq War was a war of choice, not of necessity. We still feel the impact of that decision, and we have American servicemembers left with deep wounds from this war. The region is more fractured and volatile, and there is no clear strategy to increase stability and security. ….

While the Iranian regime gets stronger, the JCPOA could limit our ability to use energy and banking sector sanctions to counter Iran’s aggression. Instead, our government has pledged to provide additional weapons to our allies in the region, escalating an arms race and increasing the likelihood of an expanded conflict.

The agreement may push back the time it will take Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon but does not eliminate the threat. At the end of the deal, Iran will have the tools, knowledge, and money to be an internationally recognized, empowered and legitimized threshold nuclear state. This newly created power and legitimacy will make deterring the regime’s aggression more difficult.

Sinema’s decision to oppose President Obama’s signature foreign policy initiative—at potentially considerable political risk—is especially noteworthy given her long record as a progressive political activist, at least on domestic issues. As a member of the Arizona House of Representatives in 2006 and 2008, she led campaigns that defeated statewide referendums that sought to ban same-sex marriages in the state, advocated for universal health care, and in 2006 she was recognized for her work by Planned Parenthood and the National Association of Social Workers. Since her election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2012, she has opposed efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, though overall has cast herself as a moderate, joining the bipartisan Blue Dog Coalition in January 2014.

In defying the President on the Iran Deal, however, she has put herself among a minority of Democratic members of Congress to do so.

Also last week, Rep. Ted Lieu (D – Calif.) made a very detailed argument, similarly assessing that the nuclear deal with Iran will likely cause “a lengthy, difficult and more deadly war with Iran in the long term.”

[Photo: Kyrsten Sinema / YouTube ]