[Peace-discuss] [Peace] Trump torpedoes Iran nuclear accord

[Carl G. Estabrook]

You’re both forgetting the organizing in this country against the US government's Central American wars of the 1970s and ‘80s - arguably involving more Americans than the Vietnam protests of the ‘60s.

A decorated (indicted) hero of those wars, Oliver North, has just become head of the NRA.

What happened after 1975 was the construction of a vicious counter-narrative, neo-conservatism, to join the business community's counter-attack on ’the Sixties,’ neoliberalism.

Beginning in the Carter* administration, neolib and neocon lies dominated US politics. 

President Bush I celebrated the real success of the first Gulf War (1990-91): “...by God, we've kicked the Vietnam syndrome [ = reluctance of Americans to engage in neo-colonial wars, after Vietnam] once and for all!”
______________________________

* "At one point, President Jimmy Carter actually said that the U.S. owed no reparations to Vietnam because 'the destruction was mutual.’” 
<http://www.vvaw.org/veteran/article/?id=265&print=yes <http://www.vvaw.org/veteran/article/?id=265&print=yes>>



> On May 9, 2018, at 5:02 PM, John W. via Peace-discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote:
> 
> 
> On Wed, May 9, 2018 at 4:52 PM, Karen Aram <karenaram at hotmail.com <mailto:karenaram at hotmail.com>> wrote:
> 
> Unfortunately, thats not what we did in the sixties. Once the Vietnam war was over, everyone went home, I left the country, many went to California to join communes, and navel gaze, while others got swept up into the eighties, where greed was good.  So here we are on the brink of nuclear war, and climate catastrophe, pick your poison. 
> 
> Right you are, Karen.  And more or less my point.  Every several decades there's a new generation of young idealists who are going to "straighten out" the mess their parents made.  And always, always, always with the same result.  Or, if not EXACTLY the same result, close enough that "it rhymes", as Carl is fond of quoting.
> 
> 
> 
>  
>> On May 9, 2018, at 14:43, John W. <jbw292002 at gmail.com <mailto:jbw292002 at gmail.com>> wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> "It's a breath mint!"
>> 
>> "It's a candy mint!"
>> 
>> "It's a BREATH mint!!"
>> 
>> "It's a CANDY mint!!"
>> 
>> 
>> STOP!!  You're BOTH right!!!
>> 
>> 
>> Lets just burn down this whole rotten system and start over, like we did in the '60's!!!!!
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On Wed, May 9, 2018 at 4:31 PM, Karen Aram via Peace <peace at lists.chambana.net <mailto:peace at lists.chambana.net>> wrote:
>> 
>> Mort, et al
>> 
>> I think your statement that David and Carl, “let Israel off the hook too easily is a bit unfair," given I have been following them on NFN for years, and accompanied Carl and others on AWARE as well. I think the point is that it’s the US who is responsible, this is an important distinction to make given so many people constantly blame others, especially Israel, for everything. Stay on FB, and it will become quite apparent.
>>  
>> Your statement "Nevertheless, the virtual unanimity in Congress with whatever Israel proposes is further evidence of the toxic influence of Zionists, their lobbying and money, on U.S. foreign policy. There seems to be inadequate counterweight offsetting their pressures, given the mentality of the Trump administration.” is quite accurate, and no one is denying the power of the lobbying group AIPAC.
>> 
>> My point is “no ones hands are tied, everyone has free will, one can always resign when being pressured to do that which is illegal or just distasteful, what a message that sends.  Unfortunately our Representatives are motivated only by self interest therefore they will support anyone, who makes it worth their while. We know where Trump’s sympathies lie, just viewing  the most awful people he has appointed to positions of power. And, many of these same people were his advisors before he was elected. 
>> 
>> My point is, when we blame others for that which we are responsible, we lesson opposition. The focus must be on what the USG is doing, no matter who we are influenced by, no matter who is in power. Most Americans are confused and focused on “getting rid of Trump,” which I think we all agree, will solve nothing, then we have Pence, then we have the Speaker of the House, then the next election we have another Democrat. One can say Obama, brought about peace with the Nuclear Accord, but choking that down with the destruction of Libya and his expansion of the Bush wars from two to eight, does us absolutely not good. 
>> 
>> I like the WSWS.ORG <http://wsws.org/> position which is “we need to change our whole damn system." 
>> 
>> See More from Karen Aram <>
>> 
>>> On May 9, 2018, at 12:22, Brussel, Morton K <brussel at illinois.edu <mailto:brussel at illinois.edu>> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Given all this ratiocination, i remain with the strong impression e.g. from their recent NfN program, that Carl and David let Israel off the hook too easily in its pushing for wars in Syria and Iran by the U.S.. Yes, of course there are others—weapons makers, Saudis, etc—, also pushing for these wars. Nevertheless, the virtual unanimity in Congress with whatever Israel proposes is further evidence of the toxic influence of Zionists, their lobbying and money, on U.S. foreign policy. There seems to be inadequate counterweight offsetting their pressures, given the mentality of the Trump administration.
>>> 
>>>> On May 9, 2018, at 8:43 AM, Karen Aram via Peace-discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net <mailto:peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> Carl
>>>> 
>>>> Stop with the “Trump Administration” being manipulated by Israel.” This is where your credibility comes into question. 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>>> On May 9, 2018, at 06:03, Carl G. Estabrook <galliher at illinois.edu <mailto:galliher at illinois.edu>> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>> Israel is pushing the U.S. to go to war with Iran. We shouldn’t let it happen.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Fifteen years ago the U.S. government attacked Iraq and killed a million people - on the basis of lies that Iraq had dangerous “weapons of mass destruction.” 
>>>>> 
>>>>> During the presidential campaign, Donald Trump talked of his opposition to the attack on Iraq: 
>>>>> 
>>>>> “Look at the war in Iraq and the mess that we’re in. I would never have handled it that way ... What was the purpose of this whole thing? Hundreds and hundreds of young people killed. And what about the people coming back with no arms and legs? Not to mention the other side. All those Iraqi kids who’ve been blown to pieces. And it turns out that all of the reasons for the war were blatantly wrong. All this for nothing!”
>>>>> 
>>>>> A principal instigator of that shameful US war against Iraq was the government of Israel, who wished to remove Iraq as a regional rival in the Middle East.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Now Israel is trying to repeat that crime, urging the US to attack and kill Iranians.
>>>>> 
>>>>> But the US is part of a deal with Iran and six other countries that guarantees that Iran will not develop even one nuclear weapon. (The US has thousands; Israel has at least two hundred.)
>>>>> 
>>>>> The ‘Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action,’ known as the Iran nuclear deal, is an international agreement reached in Vienna in 2015 between Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (China, France, Russia, Britain and the US), plus Germany and the European Union. 
>>>>> 
>>>>> President Trump has announced he will violate the agreement and ‘withdraw’ from the deal. The Israeli government cheers, because they want the US to attack Iran, for their benefit.
>>>>> 
>>>>> (Aaron Maté writes, “Trump cited Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's bogus speech from last week. Without doubt this effort is coordinated. Will any Democrats call for an investigation of this Trump collusion with a foreign power [like ‘Russiagate’]?”)
>>>>> 
>>>>> In order to get its war on, Israel has attacked Iranian troops in Syria (who are there legally, unlike US troops) -- including a bombing last week that registered as a 2.6 earthquake on seismographs. An Israeli government advisor has all but admitted that killing Iranians in Syria is designed to provoke an open war with Iran. Meanwhile, Israeli snipers kill peaceful protesters in Gaza, including children and journalists.     
>>>>> 
>>>>> We should not let the Trump administration be manipulated into war. The president and our Congressional representatives should be urged to remember the lessons of Iraq and not attack Iran - among other things a more populous and better armed country, with powerful allies, notably Russia and China. War with Iran risks a much larger war - even a nuclear war.
>>>>> 
>>>>> The largest anti-war demonstrations in history occurred around the world before the US attacked Iraq. As Americans we must do even more to prevent this new criminal war. 
>>>>> 
>>>>> If the US and Israel attack Iran, there should be general work stoppages - strikes - and street demonstrations across the US.
>>>>> 
>>>>> In the meantime, write the president and our Congressional representatives -  Representative Rodney Davis, Senator Tammy Duckworth, and Senator Dick Durbin.
>>>>> 
>>>>> —CGE
>>>>> 
>>>>>> On May 9, 2018, at 7:57 AM, Karen Aram via Peace <peace at lists.chambana.net <mailto:peace at lists.chambana.net>> wrote:
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Trump torpedoes Iran nuclear accord
>>>>>> 9 May 2018
>>>>>> US President Donald Trump announced yesterday that America has withdrawn from the Iran nuclear accord, is reimposing crippling economic sanctions on Iran, and will soon add further unspecified sanctions.
>>>>>> In doing so, Trump ignored warnings from Washington’s closest European allies and cosignatories of the nuclear accord—Britain, France and Germany—that such action risks plunging the Middle East into all-out war. 
>>>>>> Whilst provocative and incendiary, yesterday’s announcement is not in the least surprising. 
>>>>>> As the World Socialist Web Site warned in a perspective published in April 2015 in response to the announcement that Iran and the great powers had reached the “framework” for a nuclear accord: “In a broader historical sense, the deal is not worth the paper it is written on. If and when it is expedient, the US will shred the agreement, as has happened many times in the past. The Libyan regime of Muammar Gaddafi cut a deal in 2003 to give up its WMD [Weapons of Mass Destruction] programs only to find itself the target of a NATO-led war for regime-change in 2011. Amid its own economic decline, US imperialism will stop at nothing in its reckless drive for global domination at the expense of its major rivals.”
>>>>>> Changing what needs to be changed, there are striking and instructive parallels between imperialist diplomacy in the 1930s and today. In the run-up to World War II, all sorts of diplomatic agreements were signed, only to be shredded soon after, with the Nazi regime leading the wolf pack.
>>>>>> In this, Trump is only more brazen and thuggish than his White House predecessors.
>>>>>> His speech was a rant. The wars the US has waged, fomented, and aided and abetted in the greater Middle East over the course of the past quarter-century have blown up complex societies, from Afghanistan and Iraq to Libya, Syria and Yemen. Yet the billionaire, fascist-minded demagogue accused Iran of being “the world’s leading state sponsor of state terrorism,” whose “malign” and “sinister” activities have caused “havoc” in the Middle East.
>>>>>> The International Atomic Energy Agency, which has subjected Iran’s nuclear program to the most intrusive inspection regime in history, all the other signatories of the Iran accord, US Defense Secretary James Mattis and other top members of the Trump administration all state categorically that Iran has fulfilled all its obligations under the Iran deal to the letter and has not had any nuclear-weapons program for at least a decade and a half. Yet Trump claimed Iran is on the cusp of threatening the US with nuclear-armed ballistic missiles.
>>>>>> As proof for these lies, he pointed to the April 30 show-and-tell presentation of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which was panned by the European Union and all but the most right-wing Western media outlets as hype and lies. The New York Times, which is an expert at war propaganda, deception and forgery, felt professionally affronted that Washington was associating itself with so crude a performance, headlining its editorial response “Netanyahu’s Flimflam on Iran.” 
>>>>>> Near the end of his speech Trump underscored—using language akin to that of a mafia don touting an “offer you can’t refuse”—that Washington has embarked on an escalating campaign of economic, diplomatic and military pressure aimed at reimposing on the Iranian people the type of neocolonial subjugation that prevailed under the savage US-backed dictatorship of the Shah.
>>>>>> First he sung a paean to the Shah, claiming that prior to the 1979 Revolution Iran “commanded the respect of the world.” Then he declared Iran’s leaders will reject Washington’s demands for a “new” US-dictated “deal,” adding, “I’d probably say the same thing if I was in their position. But the fact is, they are going to want to make a new and lasting deal.”
>>>>>> Trump made a brief reference to North Korea in his statement, immediately after boasting that by blowing up the Iran deal he had demonstrated “The United States no longer makes empty threats.”
>>>>>> Whatever the immediate outcome of the planned talks between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jung-un, the US repudiation of the Iran deal makes clear that the Korean Peninsula “peace talks” are a tactical maneuver aimed at facilitating US imperialist violence and banditry. Should a deal be reached, it will only be to free America’s hands for confrontations with its more substantial adversaries. If and when US strategic priorities change, or circumstances allow, Washington will invoke the most flimsy and contrived pretext to jettison a Korean denuclearization agreement.
>>>>>> The Democrats and wide sections of the US military-intelligence establishment have, it should be noted, decried Trump’s turn to negotiations with Pyongyang and more or less announced that they would repudiate any deal he signs with the North Korean regime.
>>>>>> No doubt the European imperialist powers are angered and shaken by Trump’s indifference to their counsels. French Prime Minister Emanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel both came to Washington in late April to personally plea for Trump not to jettison the Iran deal. On Monday, it was British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson’s turn, although he only had audiences with Vice-President Pence and Secretary of State Pompeo. 
>>>>>> Once again US imperialism has brushed aside the concerns of its ostensible European allies in the naked pursuit of its own interests. Whatever is said in public statements, relations between the imperialist powers are ever more venomous as each pursues its own interests under conditions of economic crisis and ever-intensifying geopolitical and commercial rivalry.
>>>>>> The history of the last century demonstrated that the imperialist appetites of the British, French and German ruling elites are no less voracious than those of the capitalist rulers of America.
>>>>>> If they have sought to dissuade Trump from jettisoning the Iran deal it is only because this would cut across their attempts to exploit Iran economically, and because they fear the destabilizing impact of a war with Iran, including soaring oil prices and a further mass influx of refugees.
>>>>>> In their vain attempt to convince Trump to remain in the deal, the Europeans joined with him in making a whole series of fresh demands on Teheran, including for drastic limits to its ballistic-missile program, and pledged their steadfast support for Israel—thus encouraging both Trump and Netanyahu to proceed with their offensive against Iran. 
>>>>>> This points to another of the chief concerns of the European imperialists, which underscores that their intentions are no less belligerent. Along with the Democratic Party and much of the US military-intelligence apparatus, they have been arguing that the best strategy for bringing Iran to heel, and integrating that campaign with NATO’s military-strategic offensive against Russia, is to concentrate on prosecuting the war for regime change in Syria. As was frankly admitted by political leaders and the capitalist media in the run-up to last month’s US-French-British airstrikes on Syria, this alternate imperialist strategy could rapidly result in direct military clashes between US and Russian forces, with all that entails. 
>>>>>> Washington’s trashing of the nuclear deal constitutes an immense crisis and devastating exposure of Iran’s bourgeois nationalist regime. Terrified of the growing class contradictions in Iran, the Islamic Republic’s bourgeois-clerical regime placed its hopes in a rapprochement with US imperialism and Barack Obama’s phony promises of a new US Mideast foreign policy. No matter that it was under Obama that the US attacked Libya, launched a similar regime-change operation in Syria and supported the military in restoring its bloody grip over Egypt.
>>>>>> Since Trump, an avowed opponent of the Iran deal from its inception, came to office, Teheran has desperately appealed to the Europeans to shield them from America’s wrath. Meanwhile, in line with these efforts to ingratiate itself with the imperialists and woo investment, the Iranian bourgeoisie has pressed forward with its anti-working-class austerity policies. 
>>>>>> In response to Trump’s announcement, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and the Europeans announced that they intend to stay in the nuclear deal. In doing so, Rouhani is clutching at straws.
>>>>>> Keith Jones
>>>>>> WSWS.ORG <http://wsws.org/>
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>>>>> 
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