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Ten weeks before the first U.S.-Soviet summit ever held in Moscow, in May 1972, North Vietnam, with Soviet-supplied armor and artillery, crossed the DMZ in an all-out offensive to overrun the South.
President Nixon responded with air and naval strikes on the North.
Yet Nixon went to Moscow and signed the first strategic arms agreement of the Cold War. He did not let Soviet-backed aggression against an ally prevent him from signing a SALT agreement he believed was in the vital interests of the United States.
Three months earlier, Nixon had gone to Peking to toast Mao Zedong, whose regime was also aiding Hanoi, and which, two decades before, had been killing GIs in the thousands in Korea.
The state is a cold monster, said Gen. De Gaulle.
Which brings us to Iran. Should we accept a deal, with a regime as abhorrent as the Ayatollah’s, that would deny that regime a nuclear weapon for 10 to 15 years?
For many of the moral arguments against such a deal also applied to the Soviet Union and Mao’s China in the Nixon-Kissinger era.
What are Iran’s crimes against America?
Tehran held 52 U.S. hostages for the last 444 days of the Carter presidency. Iran’s allies in Lebanon were behind the bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut where 241 Americans perished. Iran is said to have been behind the terror attack on Khobar Towers in Riyadh in 1996 that killed 19 Americans. Iran provided IEDs to Shiite militias who killed hundreds of Americans in the Iraq war and wounded and maimed many more.
From their side, Iranians say the CIA overthrew a democratic government in Tehran in 1953, and imposed upon them the dictatorship of the Shah for a quarter century. Moreover, the U.S., in the Iran-Iraq war in the Reagan era, helped Iraq’s army target Iranian forces, not only with conventional weapons but poison gas.
There is good cause for bad blood between us.
Yet, compared to Mao’s nuclear-armed China in the madness of the Cultural Revolution in 1972, and Leonid Brezhnev’s USSR, Iran, as a strategic threat to the United States, is not even a 97-pound weakling.
The U.S. economy is 40 times as large as Iran’s, and we spend 40 times as much on defense. We have thousands of nuclear weapons. Iran has yet to produce an ounce of weapons-grade uranium. Downing Iran’s air force and sinking her surface ships and submarines would be a few weeks’ work for the U.S. Navy and Air Force.
This is not to suggest a war with Iran would be a cakewalk. We could expect Iran’s fleets of fast missile boats to wreak havoc in the Gulf, closing it down to oil tankers, and terrorist attacks on U.S. personnel in Baghdad’s Green Zone, Beirut and perhaps on U.S. soil.
In an all-out U.S.-Iran war, Iran could break apart, with ethnic minorities like Kurds, Azeris and Baluch seeking to get out from under Persian rule, as Libya, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Afghanistan have all broken down to some degree along tribal and sectarian lines.
That would deepen the disaster for us and the Middle East.
On the other side of the balance sheet, are there major interests that the U.S. and Iran share, places where we can find common ground?
Surely, the first is the avoidance of war, which would further destabilize the Mideast, be a disaster for the world economy, and leave Iran a disintegrating wreck. Another common interest is in a secure and open Persian Gulf, where oil can flow freely to the West.
Third, Iran is now a critical ally of a Baghdad regime in whose survival we, too, have a stake. Fourth, Iran is also critical to the survival of the Syrian regime and preventing ISIS and al-Nusra Front from bringing down Bashar Assad and taking Damascus.
We have enemies in common.
Moreover, as the largest Shiite nation in the Middle East, and most populous nation in the Persian Gulf, Iran, absent a ruinous war, is going to become a regional power. When Bush 43 smashed Iran’s great rival, overthrew the regime of Saddam Hussein, then disbanded the Sunni-led Iraqi army, “W” guaranteed it.
This month, a Republican Congress will vote to reject the Iranian nuclear deal that Europe, Russia, China and the Gulf Arabs regard as done. While the GOP may muster the votes to reject it, they lack the votes to override an Obama veto of their rejection.
And if and when the GOP goes down to defeat, they ought to ask themselves: Do they wish to accept and enforce the terms that were negotiated? Or do they wish to cry foul, demand a new deal, and start voting new sanctions on Iran that the world will ignore and that will isolate their own country?
How the GOP handles its coming defeat will tell us whether they have learned from the failures of Bush and can now run the country.
Patrick J. Buchanan is the author of the new book “The Greatest Comeback: How Richard Nixon Rose From Defeat to Create the New Majority.”
Copyright 2015 Creators.com.
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the neo-con’d, cuckservative Dead Elephant Party, having rolled Leftward on every other issue, has one remaining function under the current Zionist Directorate: the care and feeding of Israel. Given the opportunity, the Republiscams will absolutely and for sure start a war with Iran. Here’s hoping that Trump drags the Grand Old Pedophiles down to a defeat so absolute they’ll never come back. This will, of course, leave nationalist Whites no place to go but even farther to the Right…which is also good
Never has your memory of close to 50 years been deployed to better effect PB. No muddying with contentious views on Nixon: just well informed good sense.
“Should we accept a deal, with a regime as abhorrent as the Ayatollah’s,”
“Abhorrent” from whose point of view ?
US is allies with Saudi Arabia: you mean Iran is more abhorrent than the medieval sultanate of Saudi Arabia, and all other Gulf sheikdoms US is in bed with ?
How many of those regimes have had democratic elections ?
If US and UK had not overthrown the democratically elected administration of Mosaddegh, there would be no Shah, and no Ayatollahs.
This country needs to get out and stay out of other country’s affairs.
One need not have any trust in the Iranian régime to recognize their view of recent history may make them equally distrustful:
• The US/CIA deposition of Mosaddegh and termination of Iranian democracy in 1953;
• The US/CIA installation of proxy Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi;
• US/CIA training and assistance for the Shah’s Savak;
• US aid to Saddam in his eight year war against Iran (killing/wounding hundreds of thousands and causing the economic loss of $627 billion 1980-88);
• US support of Saddam’s use of poison gas, estimated to have caused 100,000+ Iranian military and civilian casualties (usually omitted in the 2002-03 neocon campaign for invading Iraq, which emphasized Saddam’s use of WMDs on the Kurds);
• USS Vincenes shooting down of Iran Air Flight 655 (killing 290) on 3 Jul 1988 and the subsequent US failure to apologize or admit legal liability;
• US lifting of terrorist status in 2012 of the MEK, an organization with a long history of violent activity against Iran, former ally of Saddam, and most recently prime candidate (with Israel) behind the assassination of Iranian scientists;
• US arming and support (while praising democracy and condemning terrorism) of Sunni Gulf monarchies, states with histories of funding Al-Qaeda, Al-Nusra and Daesh/ISIS;
• Frequent US military threats against Iran (“all options on the table”), overt calls for attack like those of Senator Cotton and neocon intellectuals, and suggestions of nuclear strikes/genocide from influential mega-donor Sheldon Adelson;
• US charges of Iranian repression, while the US has the highest incarceration rate in the world;
• Uncritical US support for Israel, an undeclared nuclear state whose current régime openly pines for military action against Iran.
Though the Republican position against the JCPOA may allow it to harvest dollars from some wealthy donors while damaging American prestige, it’s as reckless and irresponsible as it’s faith that the Trans-Pacific Partnership will result in a US trade surplus and more US jobs.
Marias, that is quite a list. Thanks for putting it out there. I wish every American could read it. But unfortunately most Americans are too clueless and incurious as to what is/has been going on. Like the song goes….”How long has this been going on….?
Iranian students occupied the US embassy and took its staff as hostages to protest Shah’s arrival in America; fearing a coup plot in the making; preparing the Shah for a return to power. Carter administration told the Iranian delegation, with whom they were discussing the hostage issue, that no coup was being planned and that the Shah had terminal cancer with only few months to live. The Iranian side asked for permission by the US to let an Iranian doctor to examine the Shah so that it would dispel all doubts on the part of the Khomeini government fearful of American designs on the country. At this crucial juncture, President’s National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski arrogantly refused the Iranian request saying that he saw no need for an Iranian doctor to visit the Shah to verify his ailment.
That is how the hostage crisis started; and Zbigniew Brzezinski bears full responsibility not only for the drawn out captivity of the American Embassy hostages; but also for the eventual defeat of Carter in his reelection bid.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-08-31/russian-military-forces-arrive-syria-set-forward-operating-base-near-damascus
Is the Republican Party the War Party? Obama has started a war with Russia. Can the Republicans top that? A war with a country that can destroy American Cities.
The working class (human beings) wants peace and prosperity and needs work and wages. The Democrats and Republicans give us war and welfare. We were once a free and prosperous people. Look at us now. Our political class has sold us out. As long as there are Democrats and Republicans we will remain Subjects and not Citizens.
Still think this deal will be approved so as to get the excuse to go to war. I also think Bibi hand his ilk have preapproved the treaty despite their objections. It’s just theater for the Amen and J Street lobby.
Obama’s Iran deal was meant to harm Russia by reducing global oil prices, an important Russian export commodity, and having Iranian gas compete with Russian gas in the European market.
“the neo-con’d, cuckservative Dead Elephant Party…”
First, the cuckservative meme is tiring. Second, the GOP ain’t dead…yet.
“under the current Zionist Directorate: the care and feeding of Israel.”
Why is everything related back to the Jews? Do you have a fixation?
“This will, of course, leave nationalist Whites no place to go but even farther to the Right…which is also good”
Good for whom?
“That is how the hostage crisis started; and Zbigniew Brzezinski bears full responsibility not only for the drawn out captivity of the American Embassy hostages; but also for the eventual defeat of Carter in his reelection bid.”
His refusal was the tipping point, certainly, but it was NOT the primary cause.
“Obama has started a war with Russia.”
I think the American people would be aware of this situation. Perhaps you would like to rethink your position.
“Obama’s Iran deal was meant to harm Russia by reducing global oil prices…”
Ah, the sweet smell of capitalism.