Negotiators in Lausanne, Switzerland just won a huge victory for diplomacy over war.
The hard-fought first-stage negotiations resulted in the outlines of an agreement that will significantly limit Iran’s nuclear program in return for significant relief from crippling economic sanctions imposed by the United States, the European Union, and the United Nations.
Both sides made major concessions, though it appears Iran’s are far greater.
I’m not sure what Ms. Bennis means when she says…“Both sides made major concessions”. Does she mean that the U.S. will have to curtail its arms productions in wake of this new agreement? Or does she feel that the U.S. has made a major concession by willing to gradually normalize relations between the two countries? The way I see it, it is Iran that has made all of the concessions with vague promises of economic relief (removal of crippling sanctions) somewhere in the distant future.
Meanwhile our standard list of Democratic and Republican corporate sycophants in D.C. continue their pledge to undermine peace at any cost as AIPAC pledges to keep sending them cash in return for their unconditional support of Israel. The MSM will never call out these traitors as they serve the exact same master’s as media executives grovel at the feet of corporate America for lucrative advertising deals and preferential treatment from the government when they dish out their predictable propaganda releases.
Meanwhile the most urgent nuclear issue, global nuclear disarmament, remains off the table as Congress readies itself to vote for billions of dollars more to upgrade our obscene collections of WMD’s.
Ask the relatives of the 55,000 Vietnam vets and the 2 million Vietnamese that were murdered for the lie of the Gulf Of Tonkin.
Excuse me, Peter,
But all of the Tea Party and most of the Libertarians are Republicans.
Having a strategy requires that you understand and accept reality. If you don’t, how different are you from the climate denial or Obama is a Muslim crowds?
I’m all for an electoral revolution, but it will take more than repeating our own rhetoric. We could start by going into poor neighborhoods, where non-voters are progressive, to register people and recruit them into local groups.
Maybe Germany could help the Iranians install the latest solar and wind energy devices. There’s a lot more sun in Iran than in Germany, and then Iran wouldn’t think that it needs nuclear power. Win - win anybody?
“Senator John McCain already urged Israel to “go rogue” and attack Iran.”
To assure a desired outcome in any such “rogue” going, best to have the combat-tested McCain on the ground, in Iran, leading the boots on the ground.
I can see that happening in the future. The Iranian people are well educated and progressive. I hope the deal goes through and we can begin implementing peace in that region. It’s long past due.
Like Nixon opening trade relations with China, or the fall of the former Soviet Union, if this deal turns out to be another game-changer that defuses the kneejerk military reaction preferred by the MIC and Neocons everywhere, then Bravo to that!
Apart from Ms. Bennis using the canard that certain interests want Obama to fail–to thereby reinforce the idea of genuine polarity (rather than shared corporate interests) between the two major political parties, there’s also this:
“But at the end of the day it will be public opinion that matters. A Washington Post poll in the last days before the agreement found 59-percent support for a negotiated settlement — with 70 percent of liberals, two-thirds of Democrats, and at least 60 percent of independents and self-described “moderates” all supporting a deal. Even Republicans — divided more or less evenly — are far more supportive than their party’s war-boostering representatives in Congress.”
Public opinion didn’t mean shit to a tree when the Iraq war was triggered on the basis of fixed, as in fraudulent, evidence; and it didn’t matter when it came to bailing out the big banks, rather than homeowners.
As our nation slips deeper and deeper into covert fascism, tools of state insist that elections matter and public opinion factors into the calculus. Sure.
Does a “peaceful nuclear program” really require “enrichment capacity” ?
I agree that world peace and basic trust would be enhanced by various experts (German or others) going to Iran to teach/build solar/wind/alternative, sustainable power installations. Use the power of the heart as well as the power of the sun and wind and simultaneously eliminate the “power over” that guvmints insist on using, which is the very power that is destroying the planet … End the war game and end a great deal of atmospheric pollution, ie, global warming.
You must have missed the following:
Remember, it’s not just about votes… it’s also about who counts then and how they are tabulated.
This constant Civics Class reminder on the importance of voting is mostly a smokescreen since due to Citizens United and most policies taking place behind closed doors (and thus kept out of the public’s sight) it’s corporations that are increasingly writing ALL the (trade and other) rules of international engagement added to key policy decisions imposed here within the Homeland.
We must choose between diplomacy or war. Nixon chose diplomacy by sending a pingpong team to China. Kennedy chose diplomacy by negotiating with Kruchev guring the Cuban missle crisis. Make love not WAR.
