Forty-seven Republican senators warned on Monday that any agreement the Obama administration strikes with Iran to limit Tehran’s nuclear programme may be short-lived unless Congress approves the deal. The White House accused the Republicans of advocating a “rush to war”.Imagine, if you will, that when President Nixon was negotiating the SALT I treaty with the Soviets, that the Democrats in the Senate had sent an letter to Leonid Brezhnev to inform him that any agreement would be a dead letter once a Democrat was elected president. Republicans would have accused the Democrats of conducting their own foreign policy and would have called for their heads.
In an open letter to Iranian leaders, freshman Senator Tom Cotton and 46 other Republicans said that without congressional approval any deal between Iran and the US would be merely an agreement between President Barack Obama and Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Same scenario when Presidents Reagan and G.H.W. Bush were negotiating the START treaty with Mikhail Gorbachev. Republicans would have been outraged.
But here, the GOP seeks to not only conduct its own foreign policy, they want to grease the skids for yet another war. Just like in 2003, we have had Netanyahu tromping around Washington, saying that the threat to his country will be reduced and the deserts will bloom with daisies if we only engage in another war.
I don't know about you, but I'm truly sick of this shit. If the American military is going to be used as a mercenary army to fight a war in somebody else's interest*, they can at least pay us for it.
And I am thoroughly sick of the party of Chickenhawks, old men who mainly did whatever they could to avoid serving in one war, sending our young men and women out to die in another war. For you can bet your farm that their kids and grandkids aren't going to be carrying a M-4 in yet another misbegotten war.
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* A nation that had no qualms about attacking one of our own ships.
Those bastards want another war so badly they can taste it. There's got to be some way we can draft their useless asses.
ReplyDeleteIran's Foreign Minister replied something that can be summarized "Seriously?" http://crooksandliars.com/2015/03/iran-foreign-minister-gives-gop-senators
ReplyDeleteYou are ignoring two factors in this situation:
ReplyDelete1) The Iranians have already stated that they WILL attack Israel when they obtain or build a nuke.
2) Israel is rated as the #4 (maybe #5?) nuclear power, currently. Iran will glow in the dark when #1 occurs. It's possible that a good portion of the Middle East will end up in the same condition, at the same time. If I was them, I would give serious thought to eliminating ALL their neighborhood bullies when it happens. Having a nuke hit one of their cities is going to cripple them badly, so why leave any of them capable of continuing a war?
No serving politician would survive the public's attention, if they decided not to retaliate after being hit with a nuke.
What do you expect would happen to the rest of the world if the ME goes belly up? Oil may not be available from that region for a long time, if ever. That's just for starters. It is estimated they have 400 warheads, some on missiles with an 8k mile range.
Would you hand a toddler a live grenade? Think there is much difference to handing those infantile mullahs a nuke? Just a bigger bang...
I don't think anyone disagrees that a nuclear-armed or nuclear-powered Iran is an absolutely dangerous thing. However, if we're going to stand against them, we need to be united. The GOP likes to go on about how Obama is "weak" and "hates America". They just made us appear weak to the world. hateful to ourselves, and disrespectful of the laws we're supposed to uphold. Good job, team!
ReplyDeleteWill,
ReplyDeleteYou think it's appropriate that a partisan political caucus conducts its own foreign policy? I caution you on this with the oldest rule in politics: "I'll do unto you like you did unto me.
Yes, a nuclear-armed Iran is not a good thing. But neither is a nuclear-armed North Korea, which the GOP seems to care very little about, even though the North Koreans seem to be obsessed with being able to reach American soil with a weapon.
I can only assume that the GOP doesn't care if the NKs nuke Hawaii or California, because they're blue states.
@Will
ReplyDeleteWhat a load of BS.
Nukes are outlawed in Iran, judged to be against Islam.
They did NOT announce they would attack Israel, you wrote a plain lie there.
Israel would kill itself with any nuclear first strike. It would be isolated from the Western world within hours, and never recover.
You consumed and bought into too much anti-Iran propaganda.
Here's a fact to ponder about: I searched in history books for the last aggression started from Persian/Iranian soil. It happened in the early 18th century, and the Persians were under foreign rule at the time. he U.S. aggressions against Iran during the last three generations alone fill entire history books.
And the U.S. hasn't the moral standing required to criticize Iran's support for the Hezbollah militia since it itself supports lots of militias, supported coups d'états, committed aggressions itself.