Vanessa, another good article. There's really no way to argue with the fact that we have seen countless promises, agreements, and releases of funds over the years that ultimately left us facing the same threat, often a stronger one.
That said, this time the negotiations are being conducted by Trump, and he has proven to be different from many of his predecessors. Whether it was recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital, recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, or taking actions against Iran that others were unwilling to take, he has often followed through on major promises.
For that reason, I'm not yet ready to assume this will be just another failed deal. Trump spent a lifetime negotiating deals, and I suspect he is less likely than most to be fooled by the Iranian regime. Still, like you, I remain cautious. I prefer to wait until the final curtain falls before passing judgment.
In the meantime, I appreciate the reminder that hope is not a strategy and that healthy skepticism is often warranted.
Good on you Tatala .. and Vanessa. The metronome of deal / no deal .. ie deal / war, only time will tell whether the metronome leads to a regime change / revolution in Iran.
Either way, the RAW INGREDIENTS ie the uranium needs to be removed from Iran, and their nuclear making equipment destroyed. Whether the removing of the RAW material is removed & destroyed with the regime in situ or with a revolution, remains to be scene.
I too await the final answer. One thing is clear. Thus is now trumps baby. He owns it ( and beyond 1-20-29) Obamas prior weak tea is now irrelevant. Words mean shit. Only facts matter.
In global geopolitics, Israel is expendable as long as the petro-dollars keep flowing.
There are many excellent clean energies to replace fossil fuels ⛽️ such as wind, sun, hydroelectric, nuclear energy and hydrogen energy. In fact Germany and Japan are already well advanced in hydrogen technologies - 0 emissions. It's only a matter of political decisions.
Western politicians are weak. Their whole modus operandi is surviving the next elections. Economics and security are too complicated. Propaganda, MSM and mass psychology is easier to sell than achievements. There's always a scape goat 🐐 for failures. Blame the Jews ✡️.
Regime change, regime change, and regime change is the only way to stop a nuclear armed Iran! Trump held back the Iranian Kurds because of his new best friend, the self proclaimed “Sultan” of Türkiye who hates and fears the Kurds.
The ONLY solution, in my mind, is the deaths of the Mad Mullahs and the IRGC, period. Their apocalyptic worldview renders this the only way to rid the world of their pestilence.
Agree almost 100%. But when 80% of the voters in a democratic country will not tolerate even one casualty, when they want the conflict wrapped up, and dammit, get that gas down to less than $3 per gallon, the path is obvious. Let's all get ready for the next round. Meanwhile, hand me a beer and some of those chips. There is a FIFA game on the telly to be watched.
You nailed it. Spoiled, out-of-touch-with-reality Americans. I recall my WWII vet dad saying about us in 1973, “Wait until they really can’t get their gas.” Cognitive dissonance will eventually get a wake-up call.
News flash nothing will appreciably change until a quarter of the world population abandons a faith that requires our annihilation. The political system that is a death cult masquerading as a religion has an in for us Jews. This theology will not be satisfied until we are all dead. Wake up.
Living in Israel, I believe Netanyahu has to act unilaterally. Trump is a disaster and will go down in history as worse than Obama/Biden. I am writing this while we wait for details of this deal. All i can see is that it strengthens iran.
.. I live in London, although I just returned from 7 months in Israel. My hunch is that whilst Trump may be the king of deals, I think he will use military force to get the RAW MATERIALS ie uranium REMOVED from Iran.
💯 You articulate the reality clearly. As I read your surgically precise (well, as precise as any surgery can be accomplished), I was aware that I have heard this before, again and again. That isn't meant to detract from the urgency and significance of your description of reality.
It is horrible that some of us clearly see the suicide and betrayal of the West. For years. And, not just by the leaders, the elite, the institutions, but also by the average citizens.
It is comforting that you and others write so well about this civilizational suicide and betrayal. Thousands, millions, of beautifully written prose. It is becoming a trap. It is becoming a trap because we turn it into a benign intellectual or academic exercise the longer we see it and do not take concrete action to respond to this reality at the personal and family/friend level, and at community level.
Not more talk, but preparation. Concrete preparation. Talk that leads to preparation, not fear, not paralysis. At whatever socioeconomic level you find yourself and whatever resources you have. The era from 1945 through 2010 was an aberration, not a new normal. We see it at a geopolitical level and we see it in our neighborhoods. Act upon your clarity. Prepare now. Plan and build concretely on your plan. Enjoy the intellectual conversation and in parallel act for yourself and family.
Trumps aims were never about Regime Change, only in the first place about weakening certain participants of the „world economy‘. Oil shortage „because of“ Hormuz closure still is not real and dramatic as „interested circles“ -interested in higher oil / gas prices - put it. Just as Europe a.o. parts of the world have to go towards ending dependancy on oil/gas, the Gulf States have to end dependancy from Iran/Hormuz and find other distribution ways. In the long run that might lead to more restraint on Iran than any attack can do. It is at least worth a thought if Trump really is that dumb and volatile as he might appear.
It continuously frustrates me that consumer gas prices of all things are what drive policy and major decisions like this. How we ended up with the vast majority of our people getting mad at gas prices while letting their pockets get nickel and dimed by everything else is sad. And yes, I am pretty firm in believing that is what backed Trump off. Super high gas prices would have been devastating for him in the midterms. This is very disappointing direction.
The difference between this and Obama is that Obama claimed the problem was solved and Trump clusters that Iran "Doesn't want nuclear weapons anymore" like the carnival huckster he is.
We've been told about twenty times that the "deal" was practically reached. I can't make up my mind whether all these announcements of "almost reached" deals are some kind of negotiating tactic, or whether Prez. Trump has no clue what to do next to achieve his stated goals of ridding Iran of its nuclear program and ballistic missiles.
Everybody knows that "negotiations" are just another type of weapon for Iran, and the word "deal" has an entirely different meaning for the Iranian regime than it does for the administration. Namely, Iran uses the prospect of a "deal" to delay and obstruct any action to disarm it and eliminate its nuclear program.
There is no known deal that the Iranian regime has ever respected. As Prez. Trump often reminds us, let's see what happens.
I agree that the threat needs to be destroyed. The problem is how. The JCPOA was an attempt to get there incrementally. No one trusted Iran. Would it have worked eventually over the 10-15 years? We’ll never know bc Trump left the agreement - “it was the worst deal in history”. Then Trump did not replace the deal with any real geopolitical strategy, unless one characterizes the Abraham accords as such. Clearly Iran accelerated all nuclear weapons activity after the U.S. left, China n Russia (who were part of the deal) became allies of Iran, further downgrading our leverage over Iran. Given what we know about Iran, the JCPOA likely would not have resulted in Iran without nuclear weapons ambitions. But we likely would have known sooner and had better options. But the situation that Berg doesn’t emphasize enough is the hypocrisy, mendacity and lack of credibility of the Trump Admin. Who knows what deal we’re getting? Who knows where all of this nuclear material is? Under the JCPOA, much more of that was known. Will the Trump admin ever admit that they completely screwed up this attack? Iran now knows they can attack US allies, close the Strait and their leverage is much greater than they ever had. That’s the tragedy. We still need to destroy Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions but its orders of magnitude harder bc 1) Trump left the deal in 2017 and 2) screwed up this war completely!
Vanessa, another good article. There's really no way to argue with the fact that we have seen countless promises, agreements, and releases of funds over the years that ultimately left us facing the same threat, often a stronger one.
That said, this time the negotiations are being conducted by Trump, and he has proven to be different from many of his predecessors. Whether it was recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital, recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, or taking actions against Iran that others were unwilling to take, he has often followed through on major promises.
For that reason, I'm not yet ready to assume this will be just another failed deal. Trump spent a lifetime negotiating deals, and I suspect he is less likely than most to be fooled by the Iranian regime. Still, like you, I remain cautious. I prefer to wait until the final curtain falls before passing judgment.
In the meantime, I appreciate the reminder that hope is not a strategy and that healthy skepticism is often warranted.
Good on you Tatala .. and Vanessa. The metronome of deal / no deal .. ie deal / war, only time will tell whether the metronome leads to a regime change / revolution in Iran.
Either way, the RAW INGREDIENTS ie the uranium needs to be removed from Iran, and their nuclear making equipment destroyed. Whether the removing of the RAW material is removed & destroyed with the regime in situ or with a revolution, remains to be scene.
Well said, Nathan.
I too await the final answer. One thing is clear. Thus is now trumps baby. He owns it ( and beyond 1-20-29) Obamas prior weak tea is now irrelevant. Words mean shit. Only facts matter.
Wishful thinking my friend. TACO
Why not? lol
Very well written 👏 👌
In global geopolitics, Israel is expendable as long as the petro-dollars keep flowing.
There are many excellent clean energies to replace fossil fuels ⛽️ such as wind, sun, hydroelectric, nuclear energy and hydrogen energy. In fact Germany and Japan are already well advanced in hydrogen technologies - 0 emissions. It's only a matter of political decisions.
Western politicians are weak. Their whole modus operandi is surviving the next elections. Economics and security are too complicated. Propaganda, MSM and mass psychology is easier to sell than achievements. There's always a scape goat 🐐 for failures. Blame the Jews ✡️.
Regime change, regime change, and regime change is the only way to stop a nuclear armed Iran! Trump held back the Iranian Kurds because of his new best friend, the self proclaimed “Sultan” of Türkiye who hates and fears the Kurds.
Can't 'reach a deal' with Caliphatists.
The ONLY solution, in my mind, is the deaths of the Mad Mullahs and the IRGC, period. Their apocalyptic worldview renders this the only way to rid the world of their pestilence.
100%. This has to be what happens to authentic genocidists.
Agree almost 100%. But when 80% of the voters in a democratic country will not tolerate even one casualty, when they want the conflict wrapped up, and dammit, get that gas down to less than $3 per gallon, the path is obvious. Let's all get ready for the next round. Meanwhile, hand me a beer and some of those chips. There is a FIFA game on the telly to be watched.
You nailed it. Spoiled, out-of-touch-with-reality Americans. I recall my WWII vet dad saying about us in 1973, “Wait until they really can’t get their gas.” Cognitive dissonance will eventually get a wake-up call.
📚
News flash nothing will appreciably change until a quarter of the world population abandons a faith that requires our annihilation. The political system that is a death cult masquerading as a religion has an in for us Jews. This theology will not be satisfied until we are all dead. Wake up.
Living in Israel, I believe Netanyahu has to act unilaterally. Trump is a disaster and will go down in history as worse than Obama/Biden. I am writing this while we wait for details of this deal. All i can see is that it strengthens iran.
.. I live in London, although I just returned from 7 months in Israel. My hunch is that whilst Trump may be the king of deals, I think he will use military force to get the RAW MATERIALS ie uranium REMOVED from Iran.
I hope you are right. I just don't believe he will do it.
💯 You articulate the reality clearly. As I read your surgically precise (well, as precise as any surgery can be accomplished), I was aware that I have heard this before, again and again. That isn't meant to detract from the urgency and significance of your description of reality.
It is horrible that some of us clearly see the suicide and betrayal of the West. For years. And, not just by the leaders, the elite, the institutions, but also by the average citizens.
It is comforting that you and others write so well about this civilizational suicide and betrayal. Thousands, millions, of beautifully written prose. It is becoming a trap. It is becoming a trap because we turn it into a benign intellectual or academic exercise the longer we see it and do not take concrete action to respond to this reality at the personal and family/friend level, and at community level.
Not more talk, but preparation. Concrete preparation. Talk that leads to preparation, not fear, not paralysis. At whatever socioeconomic level you find yourself and whatever resources you have. The era from 1945 through 2010 was an aberration, not a new normal. We see it at a geopolitical level and we see it in our neighborhoods. Act upon your clarity. Prepare now. Plan and build concretely on your plan. Enjoy the intellectual conversation and in parallel act for yourself and family.
Trumps aims were never about Regime Change, only in the first place about weakening certain participants of the „world economy‘. Oil shortage „because of“ Hormuz closure still is not real and dramatic as „interested circles“ -interested in higher oil / gas prices - put it. Just as Europe a.o. parts of the world have to go towards ending dependancy on oil/gas, the Gulf States have to end dependancy from Iran/Hormuz and find other distribution ways. In the long run that might lead to more restraint on Iran than any attack can do. It is at least worth a thought if Trump really is that dumb and volatile as he might appear.
It is living to fight another day. That's it.
It continuously frustrates me that consumer gas prices of all things are what drive policy and major decisions like this. How we ended up with the vast majority of our people getting mad at gas prices while letting their pockets get nickel and dimed by everything else is sad. And yes, I am pretty firm in believing that is what backed Trump off. Super high gas prices would have been devastating for him in the midterms. This is very disappointing direction.
Every word in this terrific essay is true. Thank you, Vanessa! ⭐️
The difference between this and Obama is that Obama claimed the problem was solved and Trump clusters that Iran "Doesn't want nuclear weapons anymore" like the carnival huckster he is.
We've been told about twenty times that the "deal" was practically reached. I can't make up my mind whether all these announcements of "almost reached" deals are some kind of negotiating tactic, or whether Prez. Trump has no clue what to do next to achieve his stated goals of ridding Iran of its nuclear program and ballistic missiles.
Everybody knows that "negotiations" are just another type of weapon for Iran, and the word "deal" has an entirely different meaning for the Iranian regime than it does for the administration. Namely, Iran uses the prospect of a "deal" to delay and obstruct any action to disarm it and eliminate its nuclear program.
There is no known deal that the Iranian regime has ever respected. As Prez. Trump often reminds us, let's see what happens.
I agree that the threat needs to be destroyed. The problem is how. The JCPOA was an attempt to get there incrementally. No one trusted Iran. Would it have worked eventually over the 10-15 years? We’ll never know bc Trump left the agreement - “it was the worst deal in history”. Then Trump did not replace the deal with any real geopolitical strategy, unless one characterizes the Abraham accords as such. Clearly Iran accelerated all nuclear weapons activity after the U.S. left, China n Russia (who were part of the deal) became allies of Iran, further downgrading our leverage over Iran. Given what we know about Iran, the JCPOA likely would not have resulted in Iran without nuclear weapons ambitions. But we likely would have known sooner and had better options. But the situation that Berg doesn’t emphasize enough is the hypocrisy, mendacity and lack of credibility of the Trump Admin. Who knows what deal we’re getting? Who knows where all of this nuclear material is? Under the JCPOA, much more of that was known. Will the Trump admin ever admit that they completely screwed up this attack? Iran now knows they can attack US allies, close the Strait and their leverage is much greater than they ever had. That’s the tragedy. We still need to destroy Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions but its orders of magnitude harder bc 1) Trump left the deal in 2017 and 2) screwed up this war completely!