QOTD -- Undoing Decades Of Nuclear Diplomacy

 

"...You'll find no apologies for the odious Iranian regime here. It has destabilized the Middle East with pointless adventurism and provocation while engaging in some of the worst domestic political repression in the world. But this is now twice that the U.S. has pulled the rug out from under Tehran. First, the U.S. under Trump arbitrarily reneged on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in 2018, obliterating years of diplomacy and sending us down the path we find ourselves on today. This is to say nothing of the ongoing hypocrisy about Israel's undeclared and growing nuclear arsenal.

"Perhaps even more egregiously, President Trump hoodwinked Iran into a negotiation process only to bow to Israeli pressure and conduct airstrikes against Iranian nuclear facilities. Even as he was offering Tehran a two-week window to reach an agreement and leaving the door open for fresh talks, the president had already made the decision to launch a surprise attack. Israeli airstrikes even wounded one of Iran's lead nuclear negotiators.

"Even if you think those talks would have failed due to Iranian intransigence, it is hard to imagine anything more damaging to the future of nuclear diplomacy than a nuclear-armed country using purposeful misdirection to leave an NPT [Non-Proliferation Treaty] signatory defenseless against a sneak attack and targeting negotiators. Why would any country considering building these weapons ever trust the United States again? Why would they put their faith in the procedures of the NPT if they can simply be discarded by the world's military hegemon whenever it likes?" -- Prof. David Faris, in Newsweek, on the damage the Malignant Fascist has done to decades of nuclear diplomacy by his decision to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities, which the Defense Intelligence Agency pronounced still "largely intact" afterwards.  As someone who takes pride in not letting anyone know what he's thinking (or if he's thinking, more accurately), the Malignant Fascist has introduced a new level of instability into the issue of nuclear proliferation, much as his "TACO tariffs" have made the U.S. an unreliable trading partner.  The damage this dangerous buffoon is doing to our country and the world is without precedent in recent decades.