[Cross-posted from European Tribune – where dissent is NOT troll rated!]
Persons at the U.S. State Department have always sought revenge for lives lost during the Lebanon Wars between Sunni, Shia proxy groups in conjunction with Israel. Many American citizens were taken hostage for ransom in Beirut and the greatest loss of American lives was the Beirut Marine baracks bombing during the Reagan administration.
The US retaliated by supporting Saddam Hussein during the Iraq-Iran war and turning a blind eye when massive use of chemical warfare was used. During this war Iran lost a million lives on the battle field. Iraq used US satellite intelligence to pinpoint it’s destructive arsenal of weapons.
By shredding the JCPOA nuclear deal, the USA has lost all of its credibility across vast regions of the globe.
The tragicomedy of Iran sanctions
Iran marks May 22 as the anniversary of its economic ‘siege’ by the US. Following the takeover of the US embassy in Tehran in 1979, Jimmy Carter, the then US president, imposed sanctions on Iran, freezing around $12bn worth of Iranian assets abroad.
But coming as it did during a period of internal upheaval for Iran and shortly before the Iran-Iraq war, the sanctions were initially little more than an irritant for a country facing much greater issues.
In most cases, US-produced goods could be purchased through third parties, adding relatively small transaction costs. And Iranian exports – which tended to be essential items such as oil or high quality goods such as carpets, caviar and pistachios – did not depend on any single market.
In 1995, then US president Bill Clinton expanded the scope of sanctions significantly to include oil, gas and trade, effectively banishing US firms from the Iranian market.
Continued below the fold …
○ Exclusive: CIA Files Prove America Helped Saddam as He Gassed Iran
○ Iran’s chemical weapon survivors show twin horrors of WMD and sanctions
○ Halabja is Not Forgotten
In the Obama administration, foreign policy advisors who block a closer relation to Iran because of personal grievance of buddies lost in Beirut hostage taking.
Israel Clears the Bench in Iran Fight – Amb. Ron Dermer
Israel’s Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer, acting like the coach of a football team, instructed congressional Republicans to “leave everything on the field” in the fight to defeat the international agreement with Iran over its nuclear energy program, a sign of how openly Israel now feels it controls the GOP.
Israel wants the Iran deal killed so it can keep open options for bombing Iran and imposing “regime change.” And, immediately after Dermer’s locker-room-style pep talk, Republican members of Congress began falling into line, lashing out at Secretary of State John Kerry and other senior officials who negotiated the agreement reached earlier this month between six world powers and Iran.
House Speaker John Boehner announced that he would “do everything possible to stop” the deal. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker told Kerry that he’d been “fleeced.” Sen. Marco Rubio, a Republican candidate for president, said the next president presumably meaning himself if he’s successful could overturn the deal because it’s not a binding treaty.
All this was remarkable even to The New York Times, which usually looks the other way when Israel flexes its muscles in Official Washington. A Times article by Jonathan Weisman noted the extraordinary image of the Israeli ambassador using sports analogies to rile up Republican congressmen to overturn a key foreign policy initiative of the U.S. president.
○ Saudi Arabia and Israel: Looming Threat of Regional War | Tikun Olam – Nov. 2017 |
○ Israel Lobby Pressures Qatar to Kill Al Jazeera Documentary | Tikun Olam – Feb. 2018 |
Netanyahu in a nutshell… In the morning: gives a brilliant Reaganesque performance before the Economic Club of Washington. In the afternoon: releases a Trumpian video attacking Israel's law enforcement on his social media accounts.
https://t.co/p8LDj6xdpk— Amir Tibon (@amirtibon) March 7, 2018
The United States has lost all legitimacy to be considered a leader of the free world!
Dead in the Water: Trump Middle East Peace Plan and Pompeo’s Iran Plan B | Tikun Olam |
Trump’s new motto should be: if at first you don’t succeed fail, proceed and fail again. And since he has no sense of pride about these matters, he’ll repeatedly state the same nonsense ad nauseam, even though no one believes him; and he’ll repeatedly put forward the same policy notions which he’s tried and failed to implement in the past. Exhibits A and B are what I would call Trump’s folie à deux: his much-vaunted Israel-Palestine “peace plan” and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s expected Plan B regarding Iran.
The AP’s Matt Lee reports that the peace plan will be unveiled in mid-to late-June. It’s main provision seems to be punishing the Palestinians for refusing to participate. The U.S. has virtually turned off the spigot on hundreds of millions worth of humanitarian aid. What’s going to `do the trick’ apparently, and bring the Palestinians round to the negotiating table is twisting their arms even more severely than previously. Trump will look for scattered crumbs on the floor the Palestinians may’ve scooped up without our noticing and sweep them away as well. Yessiree, nothing like punishment to bring your negotiating partner back to the table.
My most recent posts related to this topic …
○ Tillerson’s Legacy: America Reaching for the Twilight Zone
○ EU to Ditch Dollar in Iran Trade
○ By ending the Iran deal, Trump has put America on the path to war | The Guardian – Opinion | by Bernie Sanders
Some “progressives” still fail to distinguish evil brought on nations from American foreign policy. Still claiming exceptionalism as a feature of their higher moral values. Most fascist leaders made a false claim of their exceptionalism or race compared to a enemy of a subhuman standard. Such propaganda may lead to a bout of genocide so often witnessed throughout history.
