Cartoon from Sputnik
Pompeo gives a silly speech on Iran
by Jason Rezaian
The Washington Post: Mike Pompeo used his first speech as secretary of state Monday to send a message directly to the Iranian leadership and its people: “Do what we want, or else!”
Speaking at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington think tank, Pompeo rattled off a 12-point list of what he called “basic requirements” of a new way forward with Iran (really little more than a rehashing of the decades-old laundry list of Washington’s beefs with the country).
Pompeo wants Iran to give up its ballistic missile program, cease and desist its involvement in every country it’s currently involved in, completely shut down its nuclear enrichment, and at the same time release Americans unjustly imprisoned in Iran — all just because we say so.
Sounds great. But it’s also completely divorced from reality.
If Iran would only capitulate on all 12 points, Pompeo declared, it could look forward to rejoining what Pompeo referred to as the “league of nations.” (Note: The League of Nations, the precursor of today’s United Nations, existed from 1920 to 1946.)
Pompeo, though, promised that Iran would face the toughest economic sanctions in history if it fails to comply. “After our sanctions come into full force, it will be battling to keep its economy alive,” he said. “Iran will be forced to make a choice - either fight to keep its economy off life support at home or keep squandering precious wealth on fights abroad. It will not have the resources to do both.”
What remains entirely unclear is how the Trump administration plans to pull this off without the support of key U.S. allies in the European Union who are all committed to remaining in the nuclear deal with Iran and ramping up commercial ties with it.
Oddly, officials in the administration consistently point to their solidarity with the people of Iran as the main motivator in targeting Tehran’s bad behavior, and Pompeo’s speech was no exception. “It is America’s hope that our labors toward peace and security will bear fruit for the long-suffering people of Iran. We long to see them prosper and flourish as in decades past, and as never before,” Pompeo said.
Pompeo referred to recent anti-government protests in Iran that he says “show that the Iranian people are deeply frustrated with their own government’s failures. The Iranian economy is struggling as a result of bad Iranian decisions. Workers aren’t getting paid, strikes are a daily occurrence, and the rial is plummeting. Youth unemployment is at a staggering 25 percent.”
All of these things may be true. But there is nothing new about any of them, and assuming that this time around the Iranian people can compel their government to bend to America’s will seems — at least to anyone who has spent significant time in Iran in recent decades — fantastical.
The reality is that the punitive measures to come could hurt Iranian officials more than previous ones, but the real victims again will be average Iranians. And let’s be honest, that’s the whole point.
Wasn't this guy taken hostage by the Iranians? And now bad-mouthing our Secretary of State!
I want my $150B, we sent the IRI regime , back! Send this PoS back to rot in IRI jails if in fact he were a "true prisoner!"
How dare he have opinions different than the SECRETARY OF STATE.... ooooh! Traitor!
If he were indeed a true prisoner of the IRI regime and suffered beyond imagination then we would want stricter sanctions Pompeo is advocating just to make sure other prisoners of IRI wouldn't suffer as he did! Instead, he becomes belligerent and tries to sell the false rancid narrative of the US wants to bomb Iran and therefore we should embrace the non-existent reformers in Iran!!! That narrative is old and nobody believes it or buys it anymore, JJ jan! Show me a genuine reformer and I give you $1000! :-))))
The regime's Little Helpers are entitled to their views. So are their critics:
https://twitter.com/HeshmatAlavi/status/994664700863500288
It was silly, just because it didn't mention "regime change"... Regime change is the only remedy, baba... regime change is what the absolute majority of our ham-meehans inside and abroad yearns for ...He's a rookie, and I give him the benefit of the doubt, this time... Call me whatever you wish... I like president Trump...
Regime change by the people of Iran that is not an impose regime change which the common terms for is Coup deta and stooge
Muller is making America great again
tRump is helping to make Russia great again
Reject occupation, If the bar code starts with 7 29 put it back on the shelf
Buy American, say NO to Chinese madeTrump
“The time is always right to do what is right” – Martin Luther King
The IR has an incredible ability to sodomize people (literally and figuratively) and then make them freely and willingly propagandize on its behalf. That really is quite a remarkable achievement that has never been seen before in human populations. Someone should do a study into that phenomenon. I'm an animal behavior specialist, but if I was a human psychologist or a psychiatrist I would defintely pick up the project.
AO, there was a similar phenomenon among supporters of the USSR, e.g. Communists that were accused during Stalin's "show trials" (although torture and forced confessions certainly played a role)....
Dear Amir- But did those folks go out and voluntarily propagandize for Stalin even when they knew Stalin couldn't reach them? I mean, the USSR had many real professional spies and hitmen outside of the USSR that could take care of you even if you were out. The IR doesn't have that kind of a reach. That's why it hires incomptenet used car salesmen to do it's "espionage" in the United States. So, people lie Rezaeian shouldn't really be worried about that kind of thing.
Dear AO, it's complicated: some Soviets and Fellow Travelers propagandized out of "principle" or ideological conviction and some did it out of fear, naturally.
But, I get your point about the IRI's Little Helpers....There's a few different species and subspecies of them. There's the "antiwar" type, the "sanctions will only hurt the average people" variety, the "we don't want 'imposed" regime stage and 'stooges'" skunks, etc
I see. That makes sense....As you probably knnow, the USSR / KGB also had a very sophisticated "anti-war" operation where they ensnared gullible Westerners (think Code Pink) and took them for visits to Moscow to show how "peaceful" the USSR was, and how it was a victim of the imperialist West's aggression and warmongering. Ring a bell?
Hmmm, sounds familiar....At least, the stinky USSR could claim credit for playing a major role in defeating Hitler (after initially collaborating with him to dismember Poland), Sputnik, and Yuri Gagarin.
The IRI, on the other hand, lost an 8-year war with Saddam, one of the most inept military commanders in recent history -- a war that Khomeini might have ended back in 1982 with an offer of $70 billion in reparations. And if not for their Satanic "Zionist" enemies destroying Osirak in 1981, they might have faced a nuclear-armed Saddam in a few years....
And what's hilarious is that the Soviets were talking about how peaceful they were at the same time they were carpet bombing Afghan villages, killing more than two million Afghan civilians. And what's even more hilarious is when you see the usual suspect Iranians who have Russians' ba**s in their mouth while they tear themselves apart about American atrocities in Vietnam. The hilarity being augmented by the fact that the two million Aghanis that the Russians slaughtered were Muslims and their next door neighbors. And even more hilarious than that is the fact that they tear themselves apart yelling about Isarel when, as you point out, it was Isarel who actually saved Iranians from nuclear annihilation at the hands of Saddam Hussein. Of course Israel did it for its own reasons, but the end result was still the same. It saved Iranians from a nuke being dropped on them by their Arab brothers. I'm telling you man, Iranians must have an IQ of 10.
Of course, and Felestin-e Mazloom supported Saddam 100% the whole time, even after all the mutual assistance between them and the Ann-Ghollabis....
Of course. The Palestinians supported Saddam 100% and even fought in the war against Iran. You know, I mentioned this to this guy, Rezakhani, who is at Princeton now, on the old Iranian.com. and his response was some noheh khooni about how oppressed people get taken advantage of, and how we shouldn't hold that against all Palestinians, and all kinds of other bull**it. He also wrote a blog once about how Jews were planning a genocide against Palestinians. Another Jew on the brain Iranian Incidentally, what is wrong with Princeton? First Mousavian, now this guy? We used to make fun of Princeton at my old college in New Haven. I know now that we were absolutely right.
Well, in fairness to Princeton (sort of), Harvard is currently “hosting” that scumbag Hossein Derakhshan.
And Sazegara too. But then again, my alma mater also had that guy there as well for a while.