Wednesday, April 1, 2015

There Are No Sure Bets -- Not Even Kentucky

Today I write with equal confidence that Kentucky will win the NCAA basketball tournament and that Israel is putting the full court press on the governments of France, Germany and Britain to turn them against any nuclear agreement with Iran.

Talks have been taking place in Switzerland between the Islamic Republic of Iran and six nations known as the P5+1 — the United States, France, Germany, Britain, China and Russia —  in quest of an agreement that would allow Iran to continue peaceful use of nuclear energy but prohibit it from obtaining nuclear weapons, while also providing Iran relief from western economic sanctions.

Last night, optimism bloomed: 

The American Iranian Council issued a statement under the heading, “A Win for Diplomacy just took place.”  It said: “Iran and the P5+1 have reached an understanding for a political framework in which key areas of agreement will be noted as well as outstanding issues, which will continue to be discussed until the June 30 deadline toward a comprehensive deal. Reportedly, the negotiating parties are drafting a text that will be delivered in the coming hours. . .  .this is an important achievement that the American Iranian Council has pushed for both publicly and behind the scenes. . . . .the American Iranian Council urges both the US Congress and Iran’s revolutionaries to support the understanding that their nation’s top diplomats have reached. “

The White House told news organizations to expect “high level, robust engagement” to sell the agreement to Congress and the American public.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said before returning to Moscow that negotiators had reached a general accord on "all key aspects."

The impression at that time was that all participants were leaving it to “technical experts” to write the language of the preliminary agreement and have it ready sometime today.

If you thought Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, flush with his recent election victory, was going to leave it at that, you’ve got more than tobacco in your peace pipe.

Top diplomats from London, Paris and Berlin -- Israel's closest European friends -- headed home to take Bibi’s angry and impassioned phone calls.  Lavrov is consulting with his boss, Vladimir Putin, whose ideas provided the basic framework of the agreement in principle that he thought had been forged. 

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi left for home, tossing over his shoulder the warning that, ”If the talks are stuck, then all previous efforts to resolve Iran's nuclear standoff with the six major powers will have been wasted,.”

Israel has already pulled the chains of its toadies in the U.S. Congress.  The infamous writer of folly letters, Sen. Tom cotton of Arkansas, was button-holing people all over Washington to shreik that it was time for the United States to “walk away” from the talks.

Only Bibi knows what extreme methods the Israelis might employ to persuade Britain, France and Germany to torpedo the fragile but oh, so close preliminary agreement.

And so, back to the NCAA basketball tournament.  One recent March, a beach walker kicked up a bottle in the sand and a genii appeared.  “You have one wish,” the genii said.  “I wish for peace in the Middle East,” the man said, and handed the genii a map of the area.  The genii handed the map back, saying, “That’s too difficult, even for me. Make another wish.”  The man said, “I wish for the University of Iowa to win the NCAA basketball tournament.”  The genii paused, then said, “Let me see that map again.”

Look at the map again, diplomats of P5+1.  Look at the map and listen to your consciences, not the angry rants from Israel.



4 comments:

  1. Is satire demonstrated by a novel of the past (The Mouse That Roared) a precursor of events of the future? Recently in negotiations Iran we heard from Our President that he had a deal with Iran. He failed to allude to the fact that a few people made a secretive agreement agreeing to a possible framework for an agreement.
    The only way we can assess the document is to listen to the narrative of the parties.
    1) President Obama lists the framework is a victory for the world in establishing a control mechanism in Iran’s Nuclear Program. As a part of the process, the money held from Iran would be returned to the Iranian Government in a time frame yet to be determined.
    2) Iranian negotiators have released their version of the agreement that says basically all requirements to continue nuclear energy program, releasing the sanctions, and release of funds being held.
    What do we have to look at respective parties making sure the agreement is a success?
    1) We had a sanction deal where the Iranian nuclear facilities were to be monitored by independent agencies. Most attempts to monitor have been thwarted by the Iranian government which shows there is/was no teeth in the monitoring in the first place.
    2) The ‘transparency’ promised by President has been anything but transparent. His administration has been bullet riddled half-truths and outright lies, which would probably lead the Iranian government to conclude how could they believe what the United States says.
    3) During negotiations the Ayatollah has continued the defiance in the ‘death to America’ coupled with this there was an Iranian war exercise where there was a mock US ship that was destroyed.
    4) Most fundamental in a deal is the return of foreign non-combatant political prisoners. Does even the framework of the deal address Christian missionaries being held as ‘spies’ such as Rev. Saeed Abedini?
    Why does world order define what goes on in a very fractured Middle East? How do we as a global civilization see that all people work for an income and the entitlement culture is destroyed? How do we identify levels of income that are grossly unfair both low and upper end of the salary structure and devise a program good for all? Does a billionaire really need or know what to do with a billion dollars? Are countries such as China held to the same global emission standards or are all agreements so far in future timelines and administrations that the present is never held accountable for the present?
    Where is the Ronald Reagan of the present that truly believes in ‘Trust but verify’ and has the balls or the vagina to follow through with it? We have not seen that in Iran with the present sanctions, which shows why an overwhelming majority of Americans are against a deal with Iran. Every single involvement on behalf of the US in the Middle East has been a failure in the last few years (Khadafi overthrow, Libya embassy, backing Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Yemen used as a US model for change, and the list goes on and on) and it is it simply a pawn game to try and elevate John Kerry as a candidate to compete against Hillary Clinton?

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    Replies
    1. Would you please resubmit this comment in English?

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    2. Loathe the fact that the press has stooped so low that they are not able to write responsibly anymore and investigative journalism seems to pretty much be a thing of the past.
      In simple English that’s hard for most of today’s press.
      1. Top Dem’s LIED about not knowing Jonathan Grueber and how he misled Americans
      2. Our President & aides LIED about the narrative of Libya being a sudden reaction to a movie
      3. Bush admin not telling the truth about WMD’s vs. bad intel
      4. Our President lied about keeping our healthcare plans and our doctors and knew it
      5. AG. Holder has been hell bent on pushing agendas…especially racism
      • Trevon Martin was made to be innocent with pictures of him in his mid teens….LIES…and later found to be a drug addict
      • Michael Brown was made as a teenager that was gunned down and had his hands in the air……LIED
      6. “Fast and Furious” used as tool to try and get automatic weapons out of American’s hands…. LIES…..weapons were sold by our government to Cartels
      7. US carbon /pollution emissions….those bad oil companies… are THE cause for Global Warming. LIES ….absolutely has an effect but are we the only country that emits pollution? Why are eco protesters and press not hard especially on those like China businesses and autos or South America where fields are burned.
      8. Why does a network (MsNBC) that outwardly supports almost any Democratic initiative not have the common sense to ask why do we make a deal that gives almost everything to a country that says they wish ‘death to america’ and have naval war games to sink a mock US ship?
      9. Someone is not telling the truth with the ‘Framework’ deal. President Obama’s version is very different from Iranian Negotiator’s version. Where is the press pushing to Print The Agreement for the world to read?
      10. Hopefully the Democratic Party has someone unlike Hillary Clinton that is not in the pockets of Wall St. and is not one that blatantly destroys State Department e-mails that contained information that likely was hacked by in a private server and contained information that likely would end a presidency run and likely put her in prison. Where is the New York Times in investigating the obvious?
      This English could go on and on. I simply wish the far left and the far right did not control the narrative and that honesty was a value that was fundamental, but UNFORTUNATELY DISHONESTY has become a political tool of choice. I had such great hopes for President Obama, but I have never seen a more corrupt and deceptive administration. I remember the press of the 60’s and 70’s and perseverance to get to the ‘dirt’. Now all we basically have is FOX News because most of the others are in the Democratic back pocket and are either fearful or simply have poor journalistic tools to find some of the obvious about Trevon, AG Holder, Clinton E-mail erasers, and on and on. Simply English Mr. Pianist…..Simply English

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  2. This site encourages open debate and free speech. It finds these comments to be riddled with falsehoods, unsupported allegations and deliberate misrepresent- ations. Deletion, however, would be an act of censorship, contrary to this blog's standards.

    ReplyDelete