[Peace-discuss] debate in Iran about prospects of anti-Iran Trump-Russia deal

[Robert Naiman]

You're now making the point that I was making from the beginning. Anybody
who expects that Russia will take its interests as they perceive them into
account less than other countries do is likely to be disappointed.
Accepting this reality doesn't require being particularly cynical about the
motivations of the Russian government. It just means accepting that the
Russian government is like other governments.

This doesn't mean that one has to accept a "vulgar Marxist" view that what
governments will do is always reducible to or understandable by reference
to crude self-interest. Competing factions articulate different arguments
for national self-interest, and these arguments can have very different
moral consequences, and some of the people supporting the arguments care
about the moral consequences.

So, for example, right now there are people in Washington who are arguing
that continuing to support the Saudi-UAE assault on Yemen is not in the
interest of the U.S., and the U.S. should instead pressure Saudi-UAE to
stop the assault on Hodeida and agree to the UN peace deal. People who care
about moral consequences want that argument to win, even if they themselves
would be happy to see the U.S. empire crash and burn.








Robert Naiman
Policy Director
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
(202) 448-2898 x1




On Thu, Jul 12, 2018 at 3:12 PM, C G Estabrook via Peace-discuss <
peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote:

> Wouldn’t we be shocked if someone said, “Americans always lean toward the
> side that serves their interests”?
>
> In our case the interests are those of dominant social groups in this
> country - and in an age of neoliberalism, run counter to those of the
> majority, here and abroad.
>
>
>
>
>
> On Jul 12, 2018, at 10:52 AM, Robert Naiman via Peace-discuss <
> peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote:
>
>  "Russians always lean toward the side that serves their interests.”
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Peace-discuss mailing list
> Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
> https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss
>
>
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