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Good News

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Alex Symington

It certainly is refreshing to hear some good news from the world stage for a change. That good news being the promising preliminary agreement between the nations of Iran, the US and the European Union that would “end” Iran’s nuclear weapons manufacturing process. Of course the devil is in the details, but it certainly is looking good on paper and all the players are pleased with the agreement thus far. This complex and vexing issue of the balancing of a sovereign nation’s autonomy and its potentially deleterious effect on others in the global community is a tough nut to crack. The irony of the US tasked with preventing harm of sovereign nation against sovereign nation is not lost on me. Be that as it may, it is the kind of adult level conundrum that requires intelligent and nuanced negotiations and it would seem that successful terms have tentatively been reached.

The framework of the agreement, now called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), is many layered and covers both types of nuclear material, Plutonium and Uranium, which can be processed into weaponry. From reducing the centrifuges that are used in enriching Uranium for potential nuclear weapons to halting the construction of the type of nuclear power plant that makes Plutonium as a by-product of energy creation. Naturally there is mistrust by many, but all agreed-to aspects of the framework include robust inspection and verification with the stipulation that sanctions and all other existing options can be in play quickly in case of violations of the agreement.

The fact that this plan is being hammered out by John Kerry (to some, the agent of Satan) and representatives of the European Union (Godless Socialists, to the same folks) does not sit well with that right-wing-there-ain’t-nothin-a-war-can’t-solve demographic. Presidential hopeful Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker promises, if elected, his first order of business will be to ditch any existing Iranian nuclear weapons deal. Is it any wonder these recalcitrant little boys have the title of, “The Party of No”?

Poor old senile John McCain is in the back ground singing Bomb Bomb Bomb, Bomb Iran…Cute, but stupid. Every time diplomacy is favored over war, the right becomes apoplectic. They have never seen a war they didn’t like. If I hear one more reference to Neville Chamberlain, I will barf. I can hear Rush and company sputtering, “If we don’t nuke Iran we will all be speaking Persian and living under sharia law next week!” Even the right’s favorite Four Star General, Colin Powell (you remember, the guy that sold Bush’s WMDs) said, “”War should be the politics of last resort.” The right wing has a very selective memory.

Speaking of memory, to get the whole story of Iran’s extremist religious government and its origins, one must go back several decades to see how we all got here, I mean, our being the “Great Satan” and all. Once upon a time Iran was in the process of becoming a democracy all on its own, with open elections right around the corner. Mohammad Mosaddegh became prime minister after the Iranian Parliament, the Majlis, voted for him 79 to 12 back in 1951. This all miraculously taking place without any assistance from Uncle Sam. However, Uncle Sam (Big Oil) was not happy because the newly, legally and democratically elected Mosaddegh was going to nationalize Iranian oil and use the money to improve the Iranian people’s lives.

“With the oil revenues,” said Mosaddegh in June of 1951, “we could meet our entire budget and combat poverty, disease, and backwardness among our people. Another important consideration is that by the elimination of the power of the British company [today’s British Petroleum, of Deepwater Horizon infamy] we would also eliminate corruption and intrigue, by means of which the internal affairs of our country have been influenced. Once this tutelage has ceased, Iran will have achieved its economic and political independence. The Iranian state prefers to take over the production of petroleum itself. The company should do nothing else but return its property to the rightful owners.”

   Iranian oil revenues for Iranians?! What nerve! Enter British Intelligence and our CIA. Within two years of engineered violence and skullduggery, the democratically, legally elected president Mosaddegh was overthrown. As reported by William Rivers Pitt, “The West’s oil industry barnstormed back into the country. Under the leadership of the Shah, Iran became impoverished, imprisoned and deranged until the 1979 Revolution and the ascendancy of Khomeini [that] sent [Shah] Pahlavi fleeing into the night. The hostages were taken. In the aftermath, the US tapped its ally – Saddam Hussein of Iraq – [on the CIA’s payroll starting in1959] to assist in pressuring Iran, and so Iraq declared a war against Iran that lasted eight years. During that war, the US supplied Iraq with weapons of mass destruction to be used against Iran.” All of which brings us up to the present cock-up of our own creation.

Yes, hind sight is 20/20; however there is nothing new about this disastrous scenario of US “nation building” and meddling. It is consistently repeated throughout the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and South America, and our CIA and its cheerleaders never seem to tire of it. Engineered overthrow, installation of an “easily controlled good guy” followed by failure, followed by power vacuum filled by worse than what we started with. Sound familiar? Maybe that is seen by some as good for business, but it’s not good for the rest of us who have to clean up i.e., become dead or wounded or insane or jobless or homeless, etc., after each and every one of these unaccountable “shadow government” operations goes tits up. I for one am pleased to see the grown-ups hard at work trying to avert the tragedy of war instead of actively and single mindedly pursuing and promoting it.

Alex Symington

http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/02/world/iran-nuclear-deal-parameters/index.html

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/03/31/world/middleeast/simple-guide-nuclear-talks-iran-us.html?_r=1

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/world-news/obama-confident-of-reimposing-sanctions-if-iaea-finds-iran-breaking-nuclear-deal/articleshow/46837038.cms

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/30025-iran-stubborn-history-and-a-toast-to-the-future

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Mosaddegh

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiro_Agnew

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14 thoughts on “Good News

  1. Alex, As usual, well done, with a perspective the American public is not permitted to have. My next entry in this publication will deal with this same subject. It comes at the situation from a different perspective, but rests upon much of what you’ve said. ciao, PCM

  2. Alex,

    As usual, a well-written and comprehensive view of a delicate matter.

    I have another take on it. By what legitimate right do we have the authority to determine how another nation chooses to develop the means to defend itself. Particularly, when the weapon of choice is the same weapon that we have arsenals of?

    W-Bush, senior senators, representatives in our congress; along with pundits galore and leaders from several nuclear nations, have uttered some rahter incendiary comments directed at destroying Iran.

    Why wouldn’t Iran want to have a level playing field, when songs are chanted by our senior leadership, urging the bombing of that nation?

    Excellent article.

    Blessings & Respect

    1. John and Others, My next article in this publication will dwell very much on what you have just said, but in much more detail. I hope you will all read it. ciao, PCM

  3. Yes, the devil indeed is in the details, and we have the real bosses in Iran, the hard-line clerics, including the top hard-line cleric, publicly spanking Iran’s secular leaders, who have no power, saying America is the devil, for real, and saying all sorts of things that don’t leave me thinking I can trust Iran any further than I can throw the Pentagon, Langley, the White House and Congress across the Potomac River.

    Check out the wry (sarcastic) syndicated “Khamenei: Revolution lives on in Iran, despite deal with West” editorial in today’s Key West Citizen, by New York Times columnist David Brooks. Google the various American and foreign newspaper articles on the Iran negotiations. Nor for a heartbeat does Israel trust Iran. Nor, do I. Nor should President Obama and his negotiators. But then, I don’t trust President Obama and his negotiators, either. And I think they are naive (dumber than stupid), if they think they can bend Iran to their will.

    Back when I was a kid, Islamic countries like Iran were valued by America, because they hated the Soviet Union and godless communism. Iran also was valued because of its oil reserves. As you point out, Alex. the US and its allies meddled in Iran, and the chickens did indeed come home to roost.

    I suppose old farts like youse and meese should be glad we won’t be on this planet when I suppose the shyte will really hit the fan. Perhaps a sudden, massive polar shift of the planet would be more kindly, for it would upend every nation on this planet, and the people living in all nations, including Iran and America.

  4. Sloan, old bean…It’s worth a try. If we had another cowboy in the White House the only option would be more of the same ol’ same ol’…We can always nuke everybody whenever we want, but how unimaginative…..

    1. Well, Alex, how about the US just butts out of Iran’s business, and out of the Middle East altogether? Imagine Iran turning around and saying to President Obama, okay, we will agree not make nukes, if you destroy all of yours before we sign your agreement that we will not make nukes? John Donnelly is dead on the money. It is ludicrous for the US to be telling any other country it cannot have nukes, when the US has enough nukes to destroy humanity. Ludicrous doesn’t even get close to how bizarre that is, for the US to carry on like that. Did you see the article some years ago, I think it was Life Magazine, when it was back in business for a while, in which an excerpt page from President Harry Truman’s own handwritten diary was featured. On that page, Truman wrote that he did not drop the A-bombs on Japan to defeat the Japanese, but to intimidate the Russians. Well, the Russians were intimidated, and they built enough nukes to wipe out the US and plenty more places. The arms race began. England, France, Pakistan, India, Israel with South America, all developed nukes. Why wouldn’t Iran want nukes, surrounded by Russian and Israeli nukes? Oh, and by American nukes.

      1. Sloan, I’m with you in spirit and agree in a perfect world the US would butt out of the Middle East, but our plutocracy will not allow that as long as OIL is our God. The power elite will never change and will kill the earth before they do.It’s going to take a fundamental turnabout in energy policies, but I don’t see the political will to make those fundamental changes. The future is not bright…and as I mentioned, ” The irony of the US tasked with preventing harm of sovereign nation against sovereign nation is not lost on me.” Peace

  5. Iran has not invaded another country in over 200 years. The US has only had 20 years total of NOT warring since it’s inception. Unless you have had your head so far up your bum then you didn’t fail to notice the all out slaughter of innocent life last summer by Israel and the fact that Israel was the main culprit in 9/11 as well as numerous other false-flag operations including Charlie Hebdo. Also to mention that Netanyahu has been claiming that Iran is 2 years away from building a nuclear weapon for the last 3 decades.

    who you gonna trust?

    And I think it ridiculous that you people believe everything written and reported by the mainstream bs artists as it pops out at you from your propaganda box only to look back decades later to realize it was all bs. Can you please quicken your pace!

      1. i think she just meant the “fashionable” liberals who reference the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times and don’t see the irony is doing so.

  6. Alex, cut Sister a little slack, she’s still lagging somewhere back there using an alias. I, for one, don’t trust the mainstream media to get it right, or even to want to get it right. But then, I don’t trust, completely, anyone who has a dog in a fight he/she is in. Nor, anyone who hides behind an alias, and slings and arrows away, as if there is no tomorrow and courage means, hmmm, using an alias.

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