We Have Achieved Bullshit In Our Time

As regular readers know I'm a political junkie. I actually watch C-Span, Senate and House hearings are meat and drink for me. So it will come as no shock that I've been following the Iran Nuclear Deal in those forums carefully.

The fake outrage expressed by most Republicans and Democrats during these sessions would be laughable except for the seriousness of this deal. Many of them were against the deal before negotiations ever began. They had no intention of ever considering the deal no matter what it said.

Members of Congress and Republican Presidential candidates have been using the Neville Chamberlain Munich Accord argument once again. This old chestnut is trotted out every three or four years to make points that have nothing to do with the topics at hand but makes for a good sound bite. They are all clearly reading from the same talking points undoubtedly drawn up by a think tank where very little actual thinking takes place.

The analogy is completely wrong. Barack Obama is not naive and does not trust Iran. His eyes are wide open. Iran is not Nazi Germany and Khomeini is not Adolph Hitler.

Neville Chamberlain knew all of the facts of what Germany was doing in contradiction to the Treaties of 1918 and promises made by Hitler after becoming Chancellor. For years before Britain declared war on Germany in 1939 they knew what was happening and chose to ignore it. Our politicians love to quote Churchill and point to him as who they are, when they're not being Reagan. Winston Churchill throughout the 1930's presented evidence of Germany's military build up. All of the facts that he presented were the government's own information that was being fed to Churchill by his various sources in many departments. All of the information was classified and those providing it were violating the Official Secrets Act and could have been prosecuted. As an ordinary member of parliament, Churchill had no constitutional right to access the information. What would our self- righteous American politicians of today say about people leaking classified information?

Stanley Baldwin, Ramsey MacDonald and finally Neville Chamberlain all chose to ignore the German threat. Chamberlain blindly believed that Hitler had no ill intent toward Britain and he really didn't care about what might happen to smaller European countries.

President Obama knows exactly who he's dealing with and what they are capable of. The deal being proposed is the best course to take and even a majority of military and intelligence experts, including the former head of Masad, support it. Our allies support it. Russia and China support it. If this deal is not enacted all of the countries who were formerly with us on sanctions will walk away. They will restore economic ties and we alone will have sanctions, which is not enough to have true impact.

It has been suggested by those opposed that we should bomb Iran's nuclear facilities. Our own military says that this would only set their program back by two to three years. Those facilities are located in densely populated areas, so we would be killing or maiming thousands of innocent Iranians. This will breed new generations of hatred. It is those advocating this approach that are truly naive. Iran is not Iraq. Iraq was an artificial country created by none other than Winston Churchill. Iran is an ancient country better known as the Persian Empire. It is a Theocracy that would retaliate without a doubt. Then what? We would have to invade with overwhelming forces and prepare for a multi-year, multi-trillion dollar conflict followed by permanent occupation. Is that what the American people really want?

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel may oppose this deal but his is not the only voice in Israel. Many there, including military and intelligence experts support the deal.

If Iran fails to abide by the deal and work to be a productive and peaceful member of the International community then we still have all options on the table. This includes economic sanctions in conjunction with the other world powers because the fault would then lay with Iran.

All of the other issues which surround Iran including state sponsored terrorism and Americans being held there without cause will continue to be pursued on separate tracks. Separate sanctions related to these issues will remain in place.

There is a deliberate campaign of misinformation being conducted about this deal. Among these misrepresentations is the idea that we are going to be giving them billions of dollars to fund terrorism. We're not giving them anything. The money involved here belongs to Iran, they are assets which have been frozen during the sanctions period. Most of that money is not under our control and will be released if this deal fails, because the international sanctions will be done.

Do not be fooled by jingoism and do not trust people who are so clearly ignorant of historical fact or worse deliberately engaged in false propaganda.