The horror of trying to remind voters what this man said to get elected, underscoring the fact that he can't be trusted (re: Planned Parenthood).
http://m.apnews.mobi/ap/db_6776/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=Q8xO1hFb
There's scant reason for optimism. Our opening bid was fairly transparent. We're requesting they suspend enrichment and close Furrow. That's not a reasonable opening request. Iran's invested considerably in constructing and securing its facilities. It would be utterly foolish and humiliating for them to accede. And given that negotiations have been historically fruitless, I doubt this constitutes a proposal in good faith from which the parties can engender a compromise. Instead, it's a quixotic gambit which the U.S. thinks it can leverage the economic pressure on Iran to coerce total capitulation. And it's likely going to fail.
The notion that we must preventively strike Iran is not predicated on them posing an immediate threat. Rather, it's based on the belief we must prevent Iran from becoming even a latent threat. This mentality which pervaded the Bush Administration and is encapsulated in his 2002 NSS, is still the M.O. of many Republicans.
No offense but that has been the narrative for years. I remember from the very beginning every single news report made it seem like 20% WAS nuclear bomb grade material and they just had to load that shit up and light the fuse. It's just sad how nobody in the media has been doing a decent job at reporting on Iran even after everyone fucked up with Iraq.
Our analyses are not necessarily conflictual. I did not specify what Iran threatened; I only referenced the NSS to exemplify. But whether it's economic, political, or security interests, the logic of a preventive strike is to prevent Iran from developing the ability to threaten U.S. interests. I agree that Iran wouldn't pose a threat to national security. Rather, it's to obviate a potential threat to regional hegemony.
Ah, I never knew what became of that. Thanks!Story time. There was a continuous 20 hr nonstop negotiation between Iran, Brazil and Turkey in May of 2010 which resulted in a deal that would have Iran ship its enriched Uranium to Brazil in exchange for fuel rods needed in medical research, which eliminates all the fears of Iran maybe enriching past 20%. This was Turkey's show all the way and they brokered the deal. In exchange for the fuel swap deal between Iran and Brazil under the auspices of UN, Turkey would make sure no global powers will impose sanctions on Iran. Behind closed doors, US assured Turkey that if Iran went with the deal, they would promise to not bring up sanctions at UN. This would've resulted in no more economic sanctions EVER and Iran would never be able to develop a Nuclear bomb. After the marathon negotiations, all three parties signed the deal and a secret handshake between Turkey and US. Probably one of the greatest international successes by non US entities.
Within hours, Hillary Clinton made a statement that the Iran-Brazil-Turkey deal was "not satisfactory". Few days later, the west imposed toughest economic sanctions on Iran yet and the deal went kaput. Welcome to US foreign policy. By the way, as the deal was on-going, Obama was at AIPAC.
Obama will run ads about Planned Parenthood and birth control, I guarantee you that.
Perhaps it says more about me than it does about news reporting in general, but the first time I heard about that story was on the Daily Show. I don't know how heavily it was reported back at the time, but I'd like to believe that I would have known about this if it had been...
Scuttling the deal at this point would backfire and make the US (specifically the Obama administration) look stupid and show that the theory of using sanctions effectively failed since they weren't able to get Iran to agree to anything . Finally allowing air strikes after months of saying it's not necessary is the last thing Obama wants, there is no way to spin that into a victory. Romney will just tear him to shreds with it every chance he gets.
Intelligently designed.
It would be "devolving" if he came out and campaigned against it.
U.S. temerity has inured it to embarrassment. We are not averse to appearing foolish. That's a hallmark of American foreign policy. Also, there's hardly even a framework from which to proceed, so the costs of failure are inconsiderable. Additionally, the ship sailed on sanctions a while ago. North Korea doused that hope. Moreover, the implications of present negotiations regarding sanctions are indistinguishable from previous negotiations, yet the former failed spectacularly. Why are present negotiations unique? Certainly, there's a temporal component. Yet unless we've approached an unforeseen threshold, there's no discernible impetus for the U.S. to preserve the efficacy of sanctions. Rather, the probable outcome is the maintenance of sanctions with a request for even more stringent sanctions. Consequently, a military strike is not germane. The choice is not binary. Fruitless negotiations does not entail a military strike. Rather, as I noted, failure only perpetuates the status quo. And that has proved tenable to all parties. Further, I think the U.S. is convinced that sanctions have crippled Iran; there's a modicum of validity to that premise. So I doubt they'll favor compromise. Rather, they're going to insist on unconditional acquiescence. Otherwise, they'll wait for the sanctions to totally debilitate the country.
Almost. Carter and Bush 41 had lower approval ratings than Obama at this juncture. Also, their respective trajectories were decidedly negative whereas Obama's has been consistent. He's clearly in a more favorable position than both were at this juncture.
I knew you would. You're pretty smart.
lol
Well let's just call that the worst case scenario.
lol
Comment to this + last week's this American life regarding money in American politics.
WTF? Source?Story time. There was a continuous 20 hr nonstop negotiation between Iran, Brazil and Turkey in May of 2010 which resulted in a deal that would have Iran ship its enriched Uranium to Brazil in exchange for fuel rods needed in medical research, which eliminates all the fears of Iran maybe enriching past 20%. This was Turkey's show all the way and they brokered the deal. In exchange for the fuel swap deal between Iran and Brazil under the auspices of UN, Turkey would make sure no global powers will impose sanctions on Iran. Behind closed doors, US assured Turkey that if Iran went with the deal, they would promise to not bring up sanctions at UN. This would've resulted in no more economic sanctions EVER and Iran would never be able to develop a Nuclear bomb. After the marathon negotiations, all three parties signed the deal and a secret handshake between Turkey and US. Probably one of the greatest international successes by non US entities.
Within hours, Hillary Clinton made a statement that the Iran-Brazil-Turkey deal was "not satisfactory". Few days later, the west imposed toughest economic sanctions on Iran yet and the deal went kaput. Welcome to US foreign policy. By the way, as the deal was on-going, Obama was at AIPAC.
