The battle against the Iran Nuclear treaty goes on and on. Former Ambassador to NATO, Nicholas Burns, points out that Prime Minister Netanyahu’s denunciation of the Treaty is understandable but not coherent; at least not until he presents a better alternative, which no one has. The idea that we should have, or could have, walked away from the table is foolish and naïve. Breaking off talks would have led to the end of the sanctions, which brought Iran to the table in the first place. We might have tried to continue the sanctions but the rest of the world, anxious to do business with Iran would have backed off and without them we would not have had enough clout to bring Iran back to the table.
No it’s not the perfect deal from our point of view but it’s not the perfect deal from Iran’s POV either so maybe in the real world it is the perfect deal. Bibi Netanyahu may be getting a lot of mileage politically from his attacks on the treaty process but almost anything else would have meant his only option was to start a war with Iran.
Don’t forget, once Iran has the bomb, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey and anyone else big enough or rich enough to afford a bomb will have one too, and arming all these semi-civilized religious fanatics with nuclear weapons is the prelude to the end of the world.
The whole battle about the Iran Nuclear Treaty has become a huge call to Jesus, for the 18 Jewish members of the House and for Senator Chuck Schumer, a leader of the Senate, who has already decided where his vote will go. No matter what happens, perceptions will run amok. If they go with the treaty they will be attacked by Israeli interests but if they go against it they will be attacked by many of those, who have actually elected them. It’s a tough spot to be in but that, as Schumer says, is why they get the big bucks.
Congress is at the start of the hearings that will lead to a vote on the Treaty and it is painfully obvious that none of them actually have the background to be in the position in which they now are. The principal questioning has to do with the money that Iran will have available from the cessation of the sanctions. The anti-treaty Right is screaming that we will be paying them billions in taxpayer money. This is, naturally, just another Right Wing lie. It is actually Iran’s money that has been frozen in banks around the world when the sanctions went into effect. The banks don’t want them to get
it back because that means they will no longer have the use of it, but it is Iran’s money; it’s just that the Right doesn’t understand that.
The really important problem, but the one that is getting almost no attention, mainly because no one in congress has the background to ask questions about it is the technical stuff, like will the deal actually keep Iran from getting a bomb.
None of these congressmen understand how science works, so instead of listening to the scientists, they change the subject to make a point that has nothing to do with Iran’s ability or inability to make a bomb but is rather about its ability to engage in conventional warfare or supply weapons to those that do. This is ignoring what the negotiations were all about. Israel is worried about Hezbollah. They know that Iran isn’t going to nuke them because as soon as Iran gets even close they will nuke Iran first. That’s just the reality.
Our Right wing congressmen aren’t worried about Iran getting a bomb. They are worried about a successful treaty with Barak Obama’s name on it.
Back in 2008 before he was running for president, Mike Huckabee laid out a scenario for a treaty with Iran, which is almost exactly what Obama and Kerry achieved in their negotiations with that country. Now, in the midst of a failing presidential run, Huckabee drags out Adolph Hitler and driving Jews into ovens. We all know that Huckabee is a phony religionist, with a twisted moral concept that he drags out of the slime and waves at the American public whenever it’s convenient. Right now he’s trying to push his voter rating up to a point where he can stay on stage with the big kids at the debates. He’s a disgrace to whatever religion he professes and to any elected office to which he has ever had access.
The President was on the tube today making the point that the Iran Nuclear treaty is the right way to go and that he was backed on it by almost all the civilized factions in the world. That doesn’t include our GOP, the Iranian far Right or Israel, who despite having no solution of their own, are dead set against the Treaty happening.
Everyone on the right got bent out of shape about Obama saying that Netanyahu was wrong. Why? Netanyahu IS wrong. The GOP leaders are all crying that Obama has disrespected Bibi. Okay, what did Bibi do when he came over here and spoke to our congress, against our president? It’s pathetic how the Right conveniently forgets all their unacceptable behavior when they perceive that someone else has done them wrong.
All the pundits who are wailing about Obama being too strong in his speech forget that the Republican’s have spoken out against the treaty in the strongest, most disrespectful ways possible and that’s before any of them even had the intelligence to read it. The Treaty will have just enough votes for Obama’s veto to get it passed and that will give the Right another thing to whine and complain about, but since most of their complaints are about the fact that the Treaty will add to Obama’s legacy rather than that it will do us any harm, why should be bother to listen to them. Sure they talk about how the Treaty will be a disaster but none of them have any facts, just empty statements that they cannot back up. When Kerry presents the facts of the Treaty, no one wants to accept them because they dissolve the Right’s arguments against it.
Right wing congressmen walk around making statements like: “This is the worst treaty in the history of man, Hillary Clinton was the worst Secretary of State in the history of the country.” That’s supposed to be acceptable but when the President says that Bibi Netanyahu is wrong about something, something that he is obviously wrong about, then the Right gets all bent out of shape. They are pathetic hypocrites, bumbling losers and traitorous finks that care more about their pathetic jobs than they do about the country they are supposed to be serving. It’s no wonder that the American public is willing to accept a buffoon like Donald Trump rather than any of these clowns.
Watching a debate on Morning Joe today about why the president wasn’t nicer to the Right in his speech about the Treaty I couldn’t help but laugh when David Ignatius suggested that the President should have some kind of peace offering to give the right wingers in congress to bring them along. What the hell are these guys, six year olds? Does Obama have to give them a Tootsie roll to keep them from crying? These clowns are supposed to be the leaders of the country. Isn’t it about time they acted that way?
This is the deal. If it doesn’t work, the sanctions are gone. Neither China nor Russia wanted to keep them on this long. All the countries involved want to trade with Iran; want their oil. If this Treaty goes away because of a fanatic, partisan congress the President will have no ability to make another one. Iran’s ability to make a bomb if they want one becomes full speed ahead and war, considering the war mongers in congress right now, is a distinct possibility,