Colin Powell is cautiously in favor of the Iran Reset, so we who oppose it on rational grounds must sit up and take notice. Yet the most telling quote in the linked article was “With respect to the Iranians, it’s don’t trust, never trust, and always verify,” Powell said. “And I think a very vigorous verification regime has been put in place.”
Setting aside the fact that our past verification regime has failed because of the advanced refinement of Iran’s capabilities in subterfuge, deception and duplicity, this key question demands an answer. If we don’t trust them, at this point, and should never trust them, and we FINALLY had them (through all the international sanctions) at the point of negotiation, why have we offered so much, for so little, to a nation that clearly has NO intention of adhering to the agreement?
In my view it boils down (pun intended) to whether or not the US feels it has behaved so badly that we have to give Iran a mile-high-stack of get-out-of-jail free cards on past behaviors – the kind of “reset” that the Obama administration gave Russia.
And while no nation on earth, including the US, is squeaky clean – by any stretch of the imagination, that is no reason to give one of the most cancerous regimes on the planet, in terms of global security and peace, such a windfall of new opportunity to reveal its spots. These spots are, after all, already so much on display that they have become a kind of boiled-frog camouflage. The rest of the world is jaded and accepting of them.
Given where all this is clearly trending, despite Powell’s “balanced” position – I still say nay. And to the Colin Powells of the world, those who are principled and who seek rational, moderate, and peaceful paths, within the ambient temperature of today’s waters, I offer the following thoughts. As we seek to retain objectivity and approach our current situation rationally we must include a broader historical perspective. Here, for example, is an article that challenges convention by pointing out a number of “inconvenient truths” from the past, that should ABSOLUTELY be considered in any present-day decisions. A few of the bulleted highlights are included below:
Setting aside the fact that our past verification regime has failed because of the advanced refinement of Iran’s capabilities in subterfuge, deception and duplicity, this key question demands an answer. If we don’t trust them, at this point, and should never trust them, and we FINALLY had them (through all the international sanctions) at the point of negotiation, why have we offered so much, for so little, to a nation that clearly has NO intention of adhering to the agreement?
In my view it boils down (pun intended) to whether or not the US feels it has behaved so badly that we have to give Iran a mile-high-stack of get-out-of-jail free cards on past behaviors – the kind of “reset” that the Obama administration gave Russia.
And while no nation on earth, including the US, is squeaky clean – by any stretch of the imagination, that is no reason to give one of the most cancerous regimes on the planet, in terms of global security and peace, such a windfall of new opportunity to reveal its spots. These spots are, after all, already so much on display that they have become a kind of boiled-frog camouflage. The rest of the world is jaded and accepting of them.
Given where all this is clearly trending, despite Powell’s “balanced” position – I still say nay. And to the Colin Powells of the world, those who are principled and who seek rational, moderate, and peaceful paths, within the ambient temperature of today’s waters, I offer the following thoughts. As we seek to retain objectivity and approach our current situation rationally we must include a broader historical perspective. Here, for example, is an article that challenges convention by pointing out a number of “inconvenient truths” from the past, that should ABSOLUTELY be considered in any present-day decisions. A few of the bulleted highlights are included below:
- Forgotten is that the “Palestinian people” and the “Palestinian cause” are a mythic narrative invented by the KGB and Nasser’s secret service propaganda machine in the 1960s.
- Hamas has an even more genocidal goal: the destruction of Israel and all Jews. For many journalists, that is also a detail not worth mentioning.
- The Iranian regime claims non-stop that its main objective is the elimination of Israel and Israeli Jews. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has just published a book, Palestine, detailing his plans to destroy Israel.
That these points possibly seem hysteric, or have the taint of conspiracy theory makes my point for me. Rather than reject them because they are outside the mainstream, try to prove them factually wrong, if you can. And be aware that myopic present-situation-colored reset buttons are the ideological equivalent of boiling a frog in water. We accept the increased heat as the new norm. This is very risky approach – one which all warm-blooded species should avoid at all costs.