You Will Anyway: Brinksmanship with Iran

Monday, June 17, 2019

Brinksmanship with Iran

Trump started something he may not be able to stop by withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal because it was brokered by Obama. Meanwhile, Bolton and Pompeo are licking their chops.

Iran announced on Monday that it will break the limit for its uranium stockpile agreed to in the Obama-era nuclear deal within the next 10 days.

[...]

“Iran’s reserves are every day increasing at a more rapid rate. And if it is important for them (Europe) to safeguard the accord, they should make their best efforts... As soon as they carry out their commitments, things will naturally go back to their original state,” Kamalvandi said, adding that there is still time to keep under the threshold "if European countries act.”

Iran has already made clear its intentions to ramp up its uranium enrichment after the United States pulled out of the nuclear agreement and reimposed sanctions on Tehran.

[...]

The announcement comes as tensions between the U.S. and Iran grow after the Trump administration accused Tehran of attacking two oil tankers Gulf of Oman, though Iran has denied any involvement.

[...]

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said on Sunday that the attacks "warrant a retaliatory military strike."

The Hill

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"Terrorism is the willingness to kill large numbers of people for some presumably good cause.” -- Howard Zinn

"What we have is a foreign policy which is essentially a marketing strategy for selling weapons." -- Jill Stein

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"America: just a nation of two hundred million used car salesmen with all the money we need to buy guns and no qualms about killing anybody else in the world who tries to make us uncomfortable." ~ Hunter S. Thompson

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Life, as Explained in "Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead"

GUILDENSTERN: What a fine persecution---to be kept intrigued without ever quite being enlightened.

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ROSENCRANTZ : The only thing that makes it bearable is the irrational belief that somebody interesting will come on in a minute.

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GUILDENSTERN: But for God's sake what are we supposed to do?!

PLAYER: Relax. Respond. That's what people do. You can't go through life questioning your situation at every turn.

GUILDENSTERN: But we don't know what's going on, or what to do with ourselves. We don't know how to act.

PLAYER: Act natural. You know why you're here at least.

GUILDENSTERN: We only know what we're told, and that's little enough. And for all we know it isn't even true.

PLAYER: For all anyone knows, nothing is. Everything has to be taken on trust; truth is only that which is taken to be true. It's the currency of living. There may be nothing behind it, but it doesn't make any difference so long as it is honoured. One acts on assumptions.

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GUILDENSTERN : We act on scraps of information... sifting half-remembered directions that we can hardly separate from instinct.

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PLAYER: Life is a gamble, at terrible odds-if it was a bet you wouldn't take it.