[Peace-discuss] moderator help

[Estabrook, Carl G]

[The political establishment is desperately trying to prevent a rapprochement with Iran.]

After Trump says 'no preconditions' for meeting with Iran - Pompeo sets preconditions
Iran responded to Trump, conditioned such meeting on Trump's return to the 2015 nuclear deal and suspend sanction

Haaretz, DPA, Reuters | Jul. 31, 2018 | 12:18 PM

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo contradicted U.S. President Donald Tramp after he laid out the conditions for talks between the United States and Iran.

Trump said Monday that he was willing to meet with Iran's leadership "anytime" and "with no preconditions."

Speaking later on CNBC, Pompeo said: "If the Iranians demonstrate a commitment to make fundamental changes to how they treat their own people, reduce their malign behavior, agree that it's worthwhile to enter into a nuclear agreement that actually prevents proliferation, then the president said he is prepared to sit down and have a conversation with them."

Iran responded to Trump Tuesday, setting two preconditions to a possible meeting. Trump would have to agree to return to the internationally-backed nuclear deal with Iran and also would have to suspend new sanctions against Tehran before any talks, Hamid Abutalebi, an aide to Iranian President Hassan Rohani, said on Twitter. 

"Respecting the Iranian nation's rights, reducing hostilities and returning to the nuclear deal are steps that can be taken to pave the bumpy road of talks between Iran and America," Abutalebi tweeted in Farsi.

Different sentiments were also voiced Tuesday by senior Iranian parliament member Ali Motahari, who said now is not a good time for Iran to negotiate with the United States.

“If Trump had not withdrawn from (Iran’s) nuclear deal (with world powers) and had not imposed sanctions on Iran, there would be no problem with negotiations with America,” Motahari, the deputy speaker of parliament, was quoted as saying by the state news agency IRNA.

“But negotiating with the Americans would be a humiliation now,” he said.

Trump's unexpected announcement of a willingness to meet follows days of sabre-rattling between the two camps through the media and via Twitter and as the United States prepares to step up sanctions against Iran.

Trump said a future meeting with Iranian leaders would be useful "if we could work something out that is meaningful, not the waste of paper the other deal is," a reference to the agreement reached under his predecessor Barack Obama in 2015 with international support. 

It was negotiated by the U.S., the European Union, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China. The agreement was formally endorsed by the UN Security Council, incorporating it into international law.

In May, Trump withdrew the United States from the landmark 2015 international agreement designed to deny Tehran the ability to build nuclear weapons. 

Since then, Iran and other signatories have been working to find a way to salvage the agreement, even as the United States has begun reimposing some sanctions on Iran. 
 
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From: Peace-discuss [peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net] on behalf of C G Estabrook via Peace-discuss [peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net]
Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2018 8:29 AM
To: Roger Helbig
Cc: Peace Discuss
Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] moderator help

[Here’s what seems to me an accurate paleoconservative view.]


Trump's Enemies Are Hysterical Because He's Out-Maneuvering Them

"Trump is edging toward the defining battle of his presidency: a reshaping of U.S. foreign policy to avoid clashes and conflicts with Russia, and the shedding of Cold War commitments no longer rooted in the national interests of this country."

Pat Buchanan Fri, Jul 20, 2018

The original title of this essay was: 'Trump Stands His Ground on Putin'

“Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”

Under the Constitution, these are the offenses for which presidents can be impeached.

And to hear our elites, Donald Trump is guilty of them all.

Trump’s refusal to challenge Vladimir Putin’s claim at Helsinki — that his GRU boys did not hack Hillary Clinton’s campaign — has been called treason, a refusal to do his sworn duty to protect and defend the United States, by a former director of the CIA.


Slowly but surely he's boxing his opponents into a corner. All they can do is shriek and scream.
Famed journalists and former high officials of the U.S. government have called Russia’s hacking of the DNC “an act of war” comparable to Pearl Harbor.

The New York Times ran a story on how many are now charging Trump with treason. Others suggest Putin is blackmailing Trump, or has him on his payroll, or compromised Trump a long time ago.

Wailed Congressman Steve Cohen: “Where is our military folks? The Commander in Chief is in the hands of our enemy!”

Apparently, some on the left believe we need a military coup to save our democracy.

Not since Robert Welch of the John Birch Society called Dwight Eisenhower a “conscious agent of the Communist conspiracy,” have such charges been hurled at a president. But while the Birchers were a bit outside the mainstream, today it is the establishment itself bawling “Treason!”

What explains the hysteria?

The worst-case scenario would be that the establishment actually believes the nonsense it is spouting. But that is hard to credit. Like the boy who cried “Wolf!” the establishment has cried “Fascist!” too many times to be taken seriously.

A month ago, the never-Trumpers were comparing the separation of immigrant kids from detained adults, who brought them to the U.S. illegally, to FDR’s concentration camps for Japanese-Americans.

Some commentators equated the separations to what the Nazis did at Auschwitz.

If the establishment truly believed this nonsense, it would be an unacceptable security risk to let them near the levers of power ever again.

Using Occam’s razor, the real explanation for this behavior is the simplest one: America’s elites have been driven over the edge by Trump’s successes and their failure to block him.

Trump is deregulating the economy, cutting taxes, appointing record numbers of federal judges, reshaping the Supreme Court, and using tariffs to cut trade deficits and the bully pulpit to castigate freeloading allies.

Worst of all, Trump clearly intends to carry out his campaign pledge to improve relations with Russia and get along with Vladimir Putin.

“Over our dead bodies!” the Beltway elite seems to be shouting.

Hence the rhetorical WMDs hurled at Trump: Liar, dictator, authoritarian, Putin’s poodle, fascist, demagogue, traitor, Nazi.

Such language approaches incitement to violence. One wonders if the haters are considering the impact of the words they are so casually using. Some of us yet recall how Dallas was charged with complicity in the death of JFK for slurs far less toxic than this.

The post-Helsinki hysteria reveals not merely the mindset of the president’s enemies, but the depth of their determination to destroy him.

They intend to break Trump and bring him down, to see him impeached, removed, indicted and prosecuted, and the agenda on which he ran and was nominated and elected dumped onto the ash heap of history.

Thursday, Trump indicated that he knows exactly what is afoot, and threw down the gauntlet of defiance:

“The Fake News Media wants so badly to see a major confrontation with Russia, even a confrontation that could lead to war. They are pushing so recklessly hard and hate the fact that I’ll probably have a good relationship with Putin.”

Spot on. Trump is saying: I am going to call off this Cold War II before it breaks out into the hot war that nine U.S. presidents avoided, despite Soviet provocations far graver than Putin’s pilfering of DNC emails showing how Debbie Wasserman Schultz stuck it to Bernie Sanders.
Then the White House suggested Vlad may be coming to dinner this fall.

Trump is edging toward the defining battle of his presidency: a reshaping of U.S. foreign policy to avoid clashes and conflicts with Russia, and the shedding of Cold War commitments no longer rooted in the national interests of this country.

Yet, should he attempt to carry out his agenda — to get out of Syria, pull troops out of Germany, take a second look at NATO’s Article 5 commitment to go to war for 29 nations, some of which, like Montenegro, most Americans have never heard of — he is headed for the most brutal battle of his presidency.
This Helsinki hysteria is but a taste.

By cheering Brexit, dissing the EU, suggesting NATO is obsolete, departing Syria, trying to get on with Putin, Trump is threatening the entire U.S. foreign policy establishment with what it fears most — irrelevance.

For if there is no war on, no war imminent, and no war wanted, what does a War Party do?

Patrick J. Buchanan is the author of a new book, “Nixon’s White House Wars: The Battles That Made and Broke a President and Divided America Forever.”

Source: The Unz Review

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> On Jul 31, 2018, at 7:25 AM, Roger Helbig <rwhelbig at gmail.com> wrote:

You will bargain with the devil if it agrees with your preconceived conclusions won't you.  The "deep state" fantasy - soon you will become a Trumpite and swear allegiance to the dictator in chief!

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