John Chuckman
COMMENTS – RECENT BITS AND PIECES – VOLUME FIVE
At least so far as public statements go, there is little
basis for optimism concerning the Iran nuclear agreement (JCPOA).
Both President Biden and Secretary of State Blinken have said things which are not encouraging. Only today, Blinken said: “Iran is ‘weeks away’ from enough nuclear material for a bomb.”
Every physicist on the planet knows that statement is false. Iran has never enriched uranium beyond the 20-percent level, and nuclear fission requires enrichment to at least the 90-percent level, a far more difficult and costly goal to achieve.
And we even have Macron of France, one of Europe’s most ineffective and unethical leaders (just look at his smilingly brutal record of treating demonstrators in France or his ignorant remarks about Muslims), throwing in his own notions. France is, of course, a signatory to the original agreement, although its efforts to preserve the agreement since Trump’s lunacy in destroying it, are best described as contemptible.
Iran’s position is simple and reasonable. The US must first return to the status quo ante, that being the state of affairs which existed before Trump impulsively tore up an international treaty which had worked well for almost four years.
That means rejoining the agreement with no preconditions and removing the illegal sanctions (and they are illegal) the US has imposed on Iran since withdrawing.
Once that situation is established, Iran is ready to discuss any matters of concern to the US.
It is a reasonable and legally-proper position, but for the US, “reasonable” and “legal” often have no meaning, a statement attested to by a great many of its actions in the world, from Syria and Iraq to Venezuela and Ukraine.
And the reason for that is Israel’s inordinate influence on an extremely corrupt American national politics where lobbies and political donations know no limits and gain the loyalties of both political parties. The state of political corruption is at least as bad in France, a fact which explains Macron’s motivation.
It was whisperings in the ear of Trump that caused him in the first place to rip up a valid treaty that every expert and responsible statesman agreed was working extremely well. Iran’s nuclear work was the most open in the world, subject to detailed examinations by experts.
Israel won’t say so, but what it really wants is for Iran to be virtually disarmed. A country of over eighty million should leave itself open to the abuses and threats of the United States and Israel, countries which have been continuously hostile to it for over forty years.
This absurd demand is made of a country which has started no war in its entire modern history by two other countries which have been almost continuously at war.
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"Jared Kushner is nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for
negotiating the Abraham Accords and helping normalize relations between Israel
and Arab nations.”
It is only a nomination, but it is such an outrageous nomination that it should have been pitched into the bin before anyone finished reading it.
The fact that it was not is another demonstration of how meaningless the Nobel Peace Prize has become.
Here is a man who spoke contemptuously of the Palestinians, all the millions of them, on a number of occasions, who never consulted the Palestinians about matters concerning their homes and futures, who essentially brokered deals with 13th century tyrants to dump huge new quantities of American hi-tech weapons into their fragile region, and who effectively worked to guarantee the tyrants’ survival against the democratic impulses of their own populations – and he called it all peace. His efforts in fact have nothing to do with peace and certainly nothing to do with human rights and decency.
The prize is now a tool for advancing American geopolitical interests in various parts of the worlds. The winners include mass killers, terrorists, good old-fashioned tyrants, and seeming nonentities. Here or there, a reasonably worthy candidate wins just to help the prize keep some luster, but even the worthies are never the kind who would upset America’s power establishment.
Of course, we know from history that those who truly work for peace and human dignity often are people who very much disturb power establishments. It really cannot be otherwise. Examine the history of anti-war and anti-slavery and anti-oppression movements, and you will find plenty to disturb the privileged and powerful.
Such a prize in theory is a way to lend prestige and credibility and authority to the efforts of those who are not powerful. If the Nobel Peace Prize doesn’t do that, it pretty much means nothing. Instead, we have a prize to lend credibility to the privileged and powerful. I see the contemptible Donald Trump has again been nominated by his friends for imaginary achievements.
There are hundreds of truly worthy potential candidates - Julian Assange or Chelsea Manning would be outstanding examples - who will never be considered.
Behind the scenes, the US would simply not allow such awards to be made by Norway, just as it quietly guides the paths of many supposedly independent international organizations. The ability to do that is a real measure of raw power.
