When War Comes We Know Who To Blame, by Justin Raimondo

From Justin Raimondo, at antiwar.com:

The news broke on Twitter – where else? – at around five on Tuesday morning: “Officials: Iran Nuke Talks to Continue in New Phase.” The Associated Press headline writer might just as well have shortened that to “No Deal,” as the content of the story made all too clear:

“Wrapping up six days of marathon nuclear talks with mixed results, Iran and six world powers prepared Tuesday to issue a general statement agreeing to continue talks in a new phase aimed at reaching a final agreement to control Iran’s nuclear ambitions by the end of June, officials told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

“Officials had set a deadline of March 31 for a framework agreement, and later softened that wording to a framework understanding, between Iran and the so-called P5+1 nations – the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China.

“And after intense negotiations, obstacles remained on uranium enrichment, where stockpiles of enriched uranium should be stored, limits on Iran’s nuclear research and development and the timing and scope of sanctions relief among other issues.”

Various issues related to nuclear technology – storage of Iran’s nuclear materials, the status of the Fordo plant, the time limit on research and development restrictions – are among the remaining sticking points, but none of these appear to be insurmountable. The principal division seems to be over the draconian economic sanctions imposed on Iran by the United States and its allies: specifically, the timing of lifting them. Iranian media, focusing on this issue, are reporting that how and when the sanctions will be lifted is “still under consideration.” The AP story cited above says Iran’s Supreme Leader, the Ayatollah Khamenei, opposes a two-stage deal – one that presumably schedules the lifting of sanctions only some time after Iran has carried out the stipulations of phase one, leaving open the possibility the US might backtrack.

So the deadline has been extended and instead of a signed deal, or even a “framework” for one, what we have instead (so far) is an “understanding.” The negotiations are going to go for another twenty-four hours. But unless the talks continue for another two weeks, they are almost certainly doomed to fail.

The infamous letter authored by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Leo Strauss), and signed by 47 Republican Senators, presaged the successful sabotaging of the negotiations. You’ll recall the text of this “open letter” to the Iranian leadership consisted of a little civics lesson in which the GOP solons instructed Tehran on the intricacies of the American political system. In short, Team Cotton told them flat out: our party, which controls Congress, is not going to approve any lifting of sanctions, period: and, with a little help from pro-Israel Democrats like Bob Menendez, any deal is almost certain to meet an insurmountable obstacle. That’s because of the legislative trap that is about to be sprung by a bipartisan coalition of deal opponents.

Yes, the President can lift some of the sanctions unilaterally, but not all of them. More importantly, the War Party has arranged for a way to get around a presidential waiver and scotch the deal before it is even reached in the form of legislation introduced by Republican Sen. Bob Corker and co-sponsored by 8 Senate Democrats.

http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2015/03/31/when-war-comes-we-know-who-to-blame/

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