Three years ago–when Donald Trump was still just a candidate for the presidency–on the eve of the American congressional ratification of the Iran Nuclear Agreement between them and the free world, I wrote this:
“Regarding the U.S. government’s pending ratification of the Iran Nuclear Agreement, I can’t help but wonder who the most uncivilized and war-like people on this planet among the so-called ‘developed’ world are. Is it the Obama administration, along with the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, plus Germany, and also including the European Union) as well as the Iranian government itself, all of whom support the peacefully negotiated diplomatic agreement, OR is it the Republican members of the United States Congress along with all the Republican presidential candidates (except, maybe, for Rand Paul) who seem to believe that this joint world agreement is the worst thing ever to come down the pike of promoting world peace.
To my mind diplomacy beats war every time, but the Republicans seem ready to undermine the concept of world peace because they would rather use military force to run the world. Do they really believe that they are right about this? Smarter than everybody else in the world? We already have more than enough violence on this planet. Why do these extremist conservative politicians and their minions think we need more war and bloodshed? World peace is something that I see as in absolutely mandatory if human life (and most other life, too) is to survive on this planet. If the Iran Nuclear Agreement fails in the congress of this country, the U.S. may well become a bigger global laughing-stock in the eyes of the rest of the world than we already are.
If you are concerned that all is not well in this world and particularly in America, I’d like to know what you think–pro or con–because I believe this to be one of the most important U.S. congressional decisions (past, present, or future) that will ever be made in the history of our country and, just maybe, the whole world.” (llaw, July 23, 2015)
Fortunately, the Iran Nuclear Agreement was approved by our congress, and memorialized by Barack Obama’s signature, and all looked well with the prospects for nuclear peace in the world for at least the next fifteen years. But then along came Trump, who holds a vengeful hatred for Obama, and who wrongly considered the agreement to be the “worst piece” of negotiating he had ever seen, and vowed to overturn it on his first day in office, if elected. But that didn’t happen.
Instead, it took Trump until May 8, 2018, to undo Obama’s signature foreign policy achievement, severely weakening the chances of the agreement’s survival with the other parties, leaving the U.S., despite being the principle negotiator of the agreement, as no longer a supporter or a valid inspection monitor overseeing Iran’s compliance. Trump’s action was taken for only one extremely irresponsible reason: an arbitrary act to vengefully discredit Obama.
But leaving that irresponsible move by Trump where it lies, Iran’s president has condemned Trump for his whimsical actions that seem to threaten the continuation of the agreed upon release of most sanctions against Iran that the Iran Nuclear Agreement had passed along to Iran soon after the signing, and which Trump has continued to ridicule and lie publicly about the fact that the $50 billion of Iran’s own assets that were returned to them was money that came out of the USA’s own treasury, which in Trump’s mind was more like a $150 billion gift from Obama.
The U.S. is scheduled to reimpose the pre-Obama Iran Nuclear Agreement sanctions on November 4th, pursuant to Trump’s order to disengage from the agreement, which he claims is useless because it does not prevent Iran from pursuing Uranium enrichment and nuclear arms production in the long term, so Trump figures why have such a temporary agreement at all, as if further negotiations could not be considered down the road. This seems to me to be a totally warped thought process. Yet it seems to coincide with all the rest of Trump’s mindless thoughts.
On Sunday in Tehran, Iran’s President Rouhani made the following announcement, intended for Donald Trump’s digestion, although it came with some innuendos of a possible new peace agreement.
So Trump, once again, is on a nuclear warpath, with both North Korea and Iran extremely displeased with Trump’s playground-style rules that he seems to make up as the game goes along, and then daring the whole world, friends and enemies alike, to try to get along. Our foreign policy is as chaotic as our domestic policy, which doesn’t exist. What more can I say? Someone from Australia made a comment to me a day or two ago: that the “situation is dire.” ~llaw (July 24, 2018)