Looks like we'll pull out of the Iran deal.

The question I have for PaRD(and Trump supporters especially), what's the alternative to this deal? It seems to me that this is going to force us to confront them militarily in the near future. I thought you guys didn't want more war?

This is a hawkish move by Trump, plain and simple.

I really wonder how Trump supporters will fact their way out of this one.

Blockade their oil supply and tear down their regime with internal civil wars

The result: FREEDOM!

Was one of his campaign promises so wasn’t overly surprised by the move.

This can also be motivation for NK to start acting up again. If USA doesn't respect deals/treaties (or at the very least are unreliable in keeping them), why deal with them at all?

I'm not surprised but I am disappointed. Iran should be one of the West's allies against the salafists and wahabbists. And Iran was on a decent path to Westernization tbh, with Rouhani at the wheel instead of the ultraconservative Ahmadinejad. Those developments should be positively reinforced.

A deal where Iran get's advance notice of visits, and where military sites are off limits. Kerry's name, trashed as it was, is forever soiled. He belongs in jail for incompetence.

I don't support war, but if Iran wants to invite it's own annihilation, let them have at it.



Oh please, Rouhani is a puppet. He has no independent authority, and neither did Ahmadinejad (aside from lining pockets). The Ayatollah controls Iran, and will until the system he rules crumbles.

This post was edited by bogie160 on May 8 2018 12:53pm

The real result. An Iran without nuclear weapons

Trump hasn't shied away from hawkish economic clout so far. He's been happy to throw around sanctions to bully other countries in like with his focus on economic national security. Does that move the dial closer to military conflict? I think it does. But its not there yet, and that's still a long stone's throw away.
Theres a lot to unpack with the Iran Deal being folded. I think a lot of major points are;

• Because the JCPOA wasn't done as a congressional ratified treaty but was one of Obama's executive actions ("non-binding political commitment") it opened the door to Trump to tear it down unilaterally without violating any international law or claims of treaty-breaking.
  
• Trump brings up a major point that not only does the deal sunset in 2025 while allowing Iranian infrastructure to grow in the meantime which essentially guarantees a fast nuke after 2025, but that deadline also is precipitating an arms race in the middle east as every other country would want their own nukes to be ready by the same time Iran is let off the leash
  
• The Iran Deal was struck when the Saudis were in a weak geopolitical position due to overextension both in Syria and in oil production. Essentially, they were temporarily disarmed and had no leverage- they couldn't threaten to overproduce oil or support terrorists in retaliation for the Iran deal when they were already overproducing oil and supporting ISIS. But now with Syria winding down and OPEC drawing back, the Saudis regained their clout and MBS has shown a degree of contrition and willingness to be a better ally to the west, ie domestic reforms and recognition of Israel. While its in our long term interests to leverage Iran against Saudi Arabia, the house of saud wasn't going to let the Iran Deal continue unchallenged.
  
• Likewise, Israel lol.
  
• It fulfills one of Trump's campaign promises, again
  
• It opens another wedge between the US and EU
  
• Any starry eyed hopes that the architects of the deal held for near-term change in domestic politics in Iran was completely mistaken as oil money went to the elites and reforms haven't materialized
  
• The terms of the deal were so embarrassing to the US that Obama had to lie to the public so it wouldn't be dead on arrival. $1.3 billion in pallets of cash flown into Tehran paid out of the judgment fund made a mockery of the appropriations process, our criminal justice system and our international diplomacy.
  
• Once again the neoliberals are aligning on the pro-Russian geopolitical axis without a hint of irony
  
• Also I've died at least 5 times over the past couple years from the Tax Cuts, TPP, Paris Deal, Net Neutrality, threats to North Korea, etc. I guess we all died again today, huh?

The end result is a return to our pre-2015 status quo. Unlike North Korea, Iran isn't a vassal state of a nuclear world power neighbor, but is an isolated power surrounded by its geopolitical opponents and our allies who are eager to bomb it. It returns Iran to that dangerous calculation of wanting to develop nuclear weapons to ensure its own existence and become a world power, while Israel would intervene before it reached nukes and the Saudis would develop their own (or more precisely, ship them in from Pakistan). So that begs the question- whats better, a nebulous threat with indeterminate timetables and Iran not feeling safe to pursue its nuclear program as Israeli spies on motorcycles assassinate its scientists, or a ticking countdown before the entire middle east explodes in 2025? We've managed to keep the middle east relatively static for 60 years, I think we can pull off more than 10 years with a vaguer doctrine

This post was edited by Goomshill on May 8 2018 12:56pm

Yeah