I see in some letter below that some people are still beating themselves (and John Bolton) up over how unfair the search for WMD was to Saddam Hussein. How about we mention "Dr. Germ", Rihat Rashida Taha, who was running around Iraq in the last days of our invasion trying to persuade her fellow citizens to hide her test tubes full of lord knows what in their home refrigerators. She's also been accused of germ warfare tests on her fellow Iraquis. The Israelis took her seriously enough, even if some Americans think it was just her hobby; an anthrax attack on tiny Israel could leave 100,000 people dead. Not enough, you say? It has to be nuclear WMD or we owe the Iraquis an aplogy?
If Bolton was so concerned about Iranian expansion, why'd he lie us into Iraq?
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The new United States foreign policy: scream loudly and carry a limp noodle.
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And today the government of Bavaria reported that Iran has been seeking to import technology and parts needed to produce weapons of mass destruction. Chemical and biological, as well as nuclear. There has been a criminal charge for the head of a Bavarian company. If you sincerely wish to see Iran avoid provoking their targets into a preemptive strike, you should be thanking Donald Trump's policy that may, maybe, persuade the aging Republican Guard and the increasingly ancient and dogma driven Imans in charge that they will not survive an attempted strike on Israel, Saudi Arabia, or, for that matter, an American ship in patrolling the Straits of Hormuz. People with the welfare of the Iranian people in mind should be praying that the economic sanctions can stop the Ayatollahs from their desire for an apocalyptic end.
The foreign policy of Whim. Pick an issue, any issue. Is this the one? Is this the one? Let’s negotiate! Let’s impose tariffs! Let’s send troops! DJT - he whirls, he dances - such a dervish.
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Yet when President Obama said he would be willing to talk to certain nations without preconditions, the GOP, including Trump, went crazy.
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The Administration has failed miserably negotiating a nuclear agreement with North Korea. Why would anyone think they could be successful with Iran?
They just don't have the right individuals in place to even get close. Diplomacy is not one of Trumps or Pompeo's strong suits.
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@cherrylog754
Well, for one thing, they could "negotiate" the same deal signed by Obama, call it new, and claim a great victory that brought us back from the brink of war.
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Perfect example of why foreign powers, allies and enemies alike, can't trust Trump and his admin. Why enter into any agreements when DJT's dementia may kick in to change the terms?
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“Trump Administration Says It Will Negotiate With Iran With ‘No Preconditions’”
How can Iran negotiate with the Trump administration that has broken the nuclear agreement of 2015, that Iran has complied with. To say they want to negotiate again is a bald faced lie. Trump has already declared war with Iran by declaring economic sanctions, which is a UN war crime.
Trump is best friends with “bonesaw” bin Salmon the Dictator of Saudi Arabia, which chops up a journalist and commits genocide in Yemen, with the help of our weapons and aircraft guidance. The Saudis are the largest financiers of terrorists such as al Qaeda in the world. They also spread worldwide the fundamentalist Wahhabi teachings that inspire jihadist terrorists, such as the 15 of the 19 9/11 Saudi terrorists and bin Laden - NONE of whom were Iranian. The US does not care about spreading democracy since it supplies 70% of the worlds dictators with weapons - it is about money and power.
Iran has not invaded a country in over 200 years. Yet the US is continually using our tax dollars for regime change to benefit our corporations, elite and favored countries.
Sec of State Pompeo: "I was the CIA Director; we lied, we cheated we stole. We had entire training courses." Texas A&M University (April 15, 2019)
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Many of our country's actions are indefensible, as you have correctly pointed out. That being said, Iran is a huge sponsor of terror and has expanded it's reach across the region. Syria, Lebanon, and Gaza are all client states, with Iranian supported militias. They have pushed terror bombings around the world, were working on nuclear armaments, and have reached into Yemen and Libya to destabilize the region. The Iran deal, so foolishly broken by our Fool in Chief, was the only hopeful start with Iran in 40 years. The desperate flip-flops in current policy indicate that even the junior varsity squad now realizes how badly they have hurt themselves.
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I am pretty much a nobody, certainly not someone who makes policy. But if I were somebody, I would be going to Iran and publicly thank them for their forbearance and their willingness to wait for America to return to some sort of sanity.
Israel has hundreds of nuclear weapons of mass destruction aimed straight at Iran's heart, and still Iran has remained peaceful. Israel and America murdered many of Iran's scientists who knew how to work nuclear technology, and they introduced Stuxnet into the Iranian digital world, with the intent of killing Iranians. America destroyed the Iranian democratic movement to install a dictator, willing to kill Iranians for American money.
And still Iran was willing to sign a nuclear deal and to remain faithful to their commitments.
No, Iran isn't our enemy, we have been theirs, and let's be brutally honest why. America sold its sold to Saudi Arabia, a Sunni nation, in order to get cheap oil, and so we kill and die on Middle East sand so the Saudis royals can stay in power.
Hugh
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@Hugh Massengill
As close to perfection as a comment can get.
Talking and negotiation, even if tough and blunt, is far better than the mindless counter productive belligerence of the National Security Advisor's approach to Iran and just about everything. The best that can be said of Bolton's approach is that people can die, security threatened, the economy imperiled, American principles and standing in the world undermined and critically, regimes he seeks to change reinforced.
Sure the regime in Tehran is not to be liked or trusted but it is ignorant and naive to think what happens after regime change is better. Hasn't worked anyplace else, starting with Iraq. Mr Bolton seems to have failed to learn the lessons of history, including recent history.
Open minded and eyes wide open negotiations with the mullah's will not produce any instant results or a Reagan/Gorbachev buddy buddy type moment. Washington, whoever is in power, will distrust the Tehran regime and the mullahs will continue to hate and distrust Washington. Slow painful talks may only produce inch by inch results and understandings. That is better than going backwards as Bolton advocates. The more Bolton is sidetracked until he is gone again can only be a good thing for the US and the world.
Iran, like China, has one precondition to negotiations with the US. Trump has to be out of office.
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Just another example of John Bolton distorting intelligence in order to wreck any and all nuclear weapons treaties, with Iran, Russia or the rest of the world. Next on Bolton's list, The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
Mark Muhich
Sierra Club Nuclear Free Core Team
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What makes the Trump administration think that they can just toss out a hard won deal with Iran, a deal with which Iran was complying, then demand that Iran make a new deal with them. The Obama deal was not perfect, no international deal ever is, but it had put the Iranian nuclear program on an entirely different footing. What the Iranians got from Trump for cooperating with the last deal was slapped down and punished. Iranian leaders would have to be stupid to trust that any deal at all with Americans is worth the paper its printed on.
A lot of this is, of course, tied up with Trump's ego (partly his self-image as the great deal maker, partly his need to see Obama as an abject failure compared to his own greatness). A much, much smarter move would have been to leave the deal we had in place and work on opening Iran to the West during the nuclear breathing space that deal provided. Iran is an educated country with many of its people having fairly positive views of the West (many having been educated here). The more such countries can be brought into the fold of nations, the more chance there is over time to moderate their worst behavior.
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Why on earth would Iran be foolish enough to negotiate with Trump? He has demonstrated that he cannot be trusted to keep his word, ever.
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Standard Trump playbook: ratchet up tensions and engage in bellicose rhetoric and then call for negotiations because you’re a “master deal maker”. Seems to have worked well with the North Koreans.
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Remember how Obama was crucified for having no pre-conditions. He came out of it with the Iran Nuclear Deal, with 6 signatories and a commitment from Iran that was holding til the orange carnival barking con man tore it up. Now after all the tough talk of a 4th grade schoolyard bully, which everyone but his minions saw through, he is prepared to negotiate. His desperation to secure something to save face may place us all in peril. Let us hope it is like NAFTA (a rebalancing of one's 401K with a new name), or he simply reinstates the Nuclear deal with a new name that his minions will fall for again. Unfortunately he has no more Iranian money to negotiate with as Obama did. Sealing the deal with your opponents cash...that is a negotiator!
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Some sense at last from the US, or did the US suddenly realise that they have ZERO support globally because we all saw the US wants a war at the behest of profits, Israel, Saudi Arabia and US energy companies. Probably all 4.
We don't buy into the lies about the tankers, missiles on boats, etc
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