When 47 U.S. Republicans senators turned on the sitting United States president in an attempt to undermine his negotiations with Iran to keep it from gaining a nuclear weapon something that had never been done in the history of our country it was met with a big shrug by the American people. Rather than being outraged at this action that borders on treason, it was commented on and passed off as politics as usual. The creator of the letter was a young Republican senator from Arkansas Tom Cotton who had been in his position three months who gained his office through the great support he received from people interested in advancing the cause of Israel.
You know we and 6 other nations are negotiating with Iran. The purpose of the negotiations are to stop it from getting a nuclear weapon. The leaders of Israel have for decades been warning us its nation is at risk if Iran get such a weapon while continually saying it is close to achieving that goal. As you can tell, it takes many years to accomplish this.
Prompted by Israel’s concern we and other nations imposed severe economic sanctions on Iran. These increased as time went on. These have helped bring Iran to the table to bargain with us and the other nations. We are on the cusp of a deal. The outline for it has been put into place. We are about to put Israel’s fear to rest and do our best to bring Iran back into good standing among the other nations. It is something that should be desired.
Apparently it isn’t. As shown by the 47 senators, some are doing everything in their power to undermine this. Why? Isn’t an Iran without a nuclear weapon what Israel wanted?
Strangely it appears that is not the case. Sure, Israel will take that but now it wants so much more. It seems the fear of the nuclear weapon has only been a pretense all these years. We negotiate a deal to have Iran stop on its way to getting nuclear weapons but we didn’t do enough. As Natan Sharansky said: ”Iran’s dismal human rights record, by contrast, has gone entirely unmentioned in the recent negotiations.”
You see how the goal line is suddenly moved when we try to get a deal. No longer are nukes the question, it is Iran’s type of government. When you add condition after condition to the deal as Israel is doing you are really saying: “we do not want any deal with Iran.”
How can that be? Without a deal Iran will continue to seek to build a nuclear bomb. Why is Israel playing this new game? Why are all these American senators blind to its game, or are they complicit in it?
Israel does not fear the bomb because it expects to be able to force America to go to war with Iran. Israel will only be satisfied when America invades Iran and puts in a new government like we did in Iraq. That is what is being hidden from the American people.
Those familiar with the build up to the ill-considered Iraq war where we still have American troops on the ground over a dozen years later should be able to see the same step dance being repeated. We will not be fighting to stop Iran from getting WMD’s (as we said leading up to Iraq) but to free the Iranian people from their evil leaders and bring them democracy. You see Israel is so confident it can bring the United States into war with Iran that really doesn’t want any negotiations.
Keep in mind Iran is no Iraq and 2003 is not 2015.
We lost more than 4,000 American fighters in Iraq a country of 35 million with a weak military. Judging from today’s events the deaths of our American warriors accomplished little. Iran has 78 million people and a robust military. We can expect our deaths to be in the tens of thousands. We can also expect attacks on our homeland to increase. Remember how stretched our forces were fighting in Iraq, imagine how much greater the strain will be on them in Iran.
Iran without a nuclear weapon will never threaten the United States, both Russian and China may. Unlike at the start of the Iraq war Russia has turned into a belligerent nation which will take every opportunity to regain its lost empire if it sees the opportunity. An America up to its ears in another war in the Middle East would be something that would delight it.
As for China, if you are paying attention you know it is enlarging little islands in the middle of the South China Sea. The Spratly Islands that are located about 160 miles from the Philippines and 1,000 miles from China (also only 200 miles from Vietnam, Malaysia, and others) are claimed by China. China is now building a military base on the island. It will then claim jurisdiction over all the waters within 200 miles of it putting it in total control of the South China Sea. To be blunt, unlike in 2003, China is also moving aggressively to gain more territory.
We should keep our eyes on these threats. It is not in our interest to continue our wars against Muslim nations. It has only made us more and more enemies. Neither al Qaeda or any other terrorist group existed prior to our involvement in the Middle East which we have done at the behest of Israel.(Continued tomorrow)
When nearly half the Senate disagrees with the President, it would make sense for that President to pay attention to why nearly half the Senate disagrees. I anticipate the argument that partisanship is the major component of the disagreement, and offer the counter-argument that partisanship is the major component of the support for the President. In the long run, it appears that nothing will change in what Iran accomplishes, but some will delude themselves that something was accomplished with these negotiations.
Ed:
Partisanship used to stop at our waters edge; we fought it out at home but kept a united front abroad. The 47 senators decided that they would become a mini-State Department which is far beyond traditional partisanship matters.
The negotiations may stop Iran from building a bomb; the failure of them will cause the U.S. to go to war with Iran. You have a choice.
I think the blame here is being directed perhaps a bit too much at Israel and not enough at on our own leaders as well as the current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who does not equal Israel any more than Bush/Cheney equaled the United States.
There was really no danger of the U.S. going to war. The Army is exhausted. When you send people on three, four, or five combat type deployments you start getting up into eighty, ninety and 100 percent casualty rates. Even among troops who are not wounded, marriages suffer, their kids suffer, the troops suffer. Nobody understands this better than the United States Army, a singularly extraordinary institution, perhaps too good for its own good.
So having the Israelis playing the bad cop and underscoring their special relationship with the United States may have actually strengthened our hand or at least the appearance of it.
Do I like it? No. Was it worth it? I don’t know. We have to make the best of it. One thing we can learn from this is that the current generation of Republicans don’t hold a candle to Ronald Reagan, Jack Kemp, William F. Buckley and some of the others of of the previous generation, who were sometime reformers but ever preservationists.
40:
True, Netanyahu does not represent all the Israelis but he is the force behind the push to get the U.S. involved in Iran. Even were Netanyahu to blame I don’t blame him for trying to do what he thinks is in Israel’s best interest. As you suggest the blame follows on our own leaders who believe that our interests and Israel’s coincide.
The U.S. Army is a capable fighting force and it has been truly tried by the endless wars our nation enters into but that doesn’t mean it won’t be called upon for one more ride into the Middle East. That is what Netanyahu is seeking when he does all in his power to subvert any agreement; the choice is simple negotiate or fight, he’d prefer we fight and our leaders rather than leaning his direction should consider what you have noted is the extremely high casualty rate we have suffered with our wars.
I also agree that the Republican leaders of today leave much to be desired. Did you read how they spent the weekend grovelling to Sheldon Adelson at Las Vegas with each one vying to show he love Israel more than anyone else. It is sort of shocking at least in my eyes. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/27/us/politics/republican-contenders-reach-out-to-sheldon-adelson-palms-up.html?ref=politics
Although the old cliché, “never say never” can be applied in most every situation, the exception is that there will never be peace in the middle east and everyone who understands that two plus two equals four should be able to come to the same conclusion.
The author is correct. America has no business in the Muslim nations’ problems. We do nothing to assist. We only make things worse.
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Doug:
Regretfully I have to agree with you that there will never be peace in the Middle East which seems to me that America as you suggest should get out of the quagmire as quickly as possible.