At the time I guess it was emotional, in the sense that it was “we don’t trust Iran” instead of “we have hard proof that Iran is going to cheat”. But then, there isn’t hard proof of anything in the future. It was “people who believe Iran is going to honor the deal” versus “people who believe Iran won’t honor the deal”.
As with many things in international politics, I don’t personally understand enough to do a hard analysis. I tend to seek out various sources, from The New York Times to my mother, and see what they say on the matter, then get all confused because they’re often wildly contradictory.
I’m not Israeli, but I have been to Israel many times and feel at home there.
They are. They have been for a while. It was already happening post-Cold War; Bush (41) did a pretty good job of keeping the status quo ticking along but by the Clinton years things were already starting to slowly drift apart (see the various issues with who was in charge during the Balkan war). Bush (43) sped up the process with his "America - fuck yeah! approach to Iraq and pretty much everything else. Obama slowed things down again and attempted to move America into a much more soft-power-based mode of influence but China had already stormed ahead by then and Obama’s problems with the Republican Congress and insufficiently proactive style meant that at best America would be playing catchup.
And now Trump has stomped the accelerator through the floor. “America First” has come to mean “America Alone” - consider: the withdrawal from the Paris Accord, TPP, and the Iran deal; the greatly weakened support for NATO; the completely “stupid” (to borrow Juncker’s description) trade war; the overt leaking of shared Western and Israeli intelligence with Russia; and above all the Tourette’s-style tweets and pronouncements from what used to be the most powerful political office in the world, statements which are often reversed or contradicted within days if not hours. America can no longer be relied on - not only to do the right thing but to do anything.
And as a result it is becoming irrelevant. The rest of the world has no reason to trust or respect America anymore, and as a result they know that it is in their best interest to do everything possible to ensure they no longer need America politically, economically or culturally. Strangely a lot of Trump supporters seem to consider this a win, as if taking your ball and going home is a “win” when the result is you sitting alone in your basement with a ball that is of no use to you anymore while all your former friends go play a different game without you.
Not really surprised, but still aghast and taken aback. If someone swears that he’s gonna fuck a pig, if all his friends are saying he’s gonna fuck the pig, then just because every right minded individual tells him not to doesn’t mean that it is a surprise when he does.
It’s more a surprise that we live in a world where that sort of thing happens.
Past time. We had our time as a world leader. The say when you are a follower, the view never changes. But when you are leader, you get the same view when you shove your head up your ass.
Very well put. And frankly reminds me of Trumps own persona. I would bet a lot of his childhood, and probably his business career was just like this. Except, he did have the money to keep some people around to play with him.
Right, it took over two years to negotiate the JCPOA and involved representatives from many countries who all had a stake in it. Maybe you don’t like everything about it, but it was a deal. Now, Trump has just decided that he wants to rip it up and everyone else has to do what he says, just because he says it. Maybe the UK and the Germans want to keep doing business in Iran? It would be one thing if Trump was asking people to do hard things for good reasons, but it’s glaringly obvious that Trump doesn’t actually understand the JCPOA and hasn’t reasonably articulated what he wants to change.
This is a disaster since now everyone knows that even if we elect a reasonable leader next time, it might just be 4-8 years before everything’s up for grabs again, so there’s really no incentive to offer much by way of concessions. Most of the post-WWII stability of the world was based on the US and other major powers not necessarily being good, but being consistent and abiding by previous decisions. As long as countries could rely on that, they didn’t need as much military might. Maybe Trump is going to get that European military buildup he says he wants but not in a way he will like.
I think that is what is upsetting so many people- it doesn’t come down to believing something as there was an inspection program in place and a nuclear weapons program is not so easy to hide. But I suppose people will disagree about that, and where Israelis and their sympathizers are concerned, they have the most to lose in all this.
One justification for this move that bugs me is “I am keeping my campaign promise to pull out!” Yeah, but the US negotiated a deal with world powers, and now the US is breaking its promise. The US is bigger that whoever happens to be the POTUS, something Trump consistently seems to fail to grasp.
Welp, no time for teeth gnashing over it. Things change fast these days, need to be prepared for what’s next. I am concerned about what happens if we start sanctioning everybody who does business with Iran. That, plus tariffs, doesn’t paint a pretty picture AFAICT.
“The Fake News is working overtime. Just reported that, despite the tremendous success we are having with the economy & all things else, 91% of the Network News about me is negative (Fake). Why do we work so hard in working with the media when it is corrupt? Take away credentials?”
So, in other words, negative = fake. And let’s license the press.
He means, take away their White House credentials, granting them access to the WH. He would prefer to only have friendly reporters attend WH briefings and ask questions.
:eek: