[lbo-talk] Warren, Bernie, Hillary: Back Obama's Iran Diplomacy

Robert Naiman naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
Wed Oct 22 18:44:57 PDT 2014


Why is it "red-baiting" to compare you to a young Trotskyist?

Wasn't it Lenin who wrote, "Left-Wing Communism: An Infantile Disorder?"

Was Lenin "red-baiting"?

Robert Naiman Policy Director Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org naiman at justforeignpolicy.org (202) 448-2898 x1

On Wed, Oct 22, 2014 at 6:10 PM, Carl G. Estabrook <galliher at illinois.edu> wrote:


> Bob--
>
> As long as we've known one another - practically a quarter century - I've
> apparently consistently failed to make myself clear to you.
>
> For openers, I'm not young, campus (I'm retired), nor a Trotskyist (you
> know I'm a yellow-dog Chomskyan - a position I'll describe to a UIUC class
> next week).
>
> Your red-baiting caricature applies to nothing I've said in our
> conversation, ancient or modern.
>
> (The "Planet Earth" line I think I last heard from Alan Dershowitz,
> deriding Chomsky in a debate: it suggests the desperate level at which
> Dershowitz was working...)
>
> Given the war crimes and mass murder of which the Democrats in office have
> been guilty, the principal objection I can see to the Republicans' taking
> the Senate is that they are *more* likely than the present Senate
> leadership to give Obama fast-track authority for his neoliberal trade
> pacts, Pacific and Atlantic. OTOH the Republicans still have an anti-war
> wing (altho' Rand Paul seems to be working hard to destroy his father's
> work in that area), while Obama destroyed the Democrats' anti-war wing.
>
> The duplicity of the support Democratic front groups like MoveOn give to
> Obama's vicious military and economic policies suggests that they know how
> unpopular those policies are - because it's generally recognized, however
> obscurely, that those policies serve the interests of the 1%, not the 99%.
>
> It will be Better, not Worse, when Obama's war and austerity are
> decisively rejected.
>
> Regards, CGE
>
>
> On Oct 22, 2014, at 5:23 PM, Robert Naiman <naiman at justforeignpolicy.org>
> wrote:
>
> You seem to have the worldview common among young campus Trotskyists: the
> masses are poised for revolution, if only the opportunist labor lieutenants
> of capital could be stopped from diverting them into reformism.
>
> Back on Planet Earth, the handicappers give the Republicans better than
> even odds of retaking the Senate.
>
> But maybe you would see that as a positive development. After all, as
> every young Trotskyist knows, Worse Is Better.
>
>
>
> Robert Naiman
> Policy Director
> Just Foreign Policy
> www.justforeignpolicy.org
> naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
> (202) 448-2898 x1
>
> On Wed, Oct 22, 2014 at 4:41 PM, Carl G. Estabrook <galliher at illinois.edu>
> wrote:
>
>> Bob--
>>
>> This appears to be another dodgy MoveOn petition in support of the
>> administration's murderous Mideast policies.
>>
>> Those policies are in the interest of the American 1% (and no one else),
>> who wish to continue their control of the world economy by dominating
>> Mideast energy flows.
>>
>> It is simply false to say that the US is trying "to provide assurance to
>> the international community that Iran will never try to build a nuclear
>> weapon." That is the made-up reason for US attempts to exert control over
>> the Iranian economy, particularly its production and distribution of gas
>> and oil.
>>
>> Since Iran rejected US control in 1979, every US administration up to and
>> including the current one has sought to reassert it.
>>
>> "In 2010, Iran accepted a proposal by Turkey and Brazil to ship its
>> enriched uranium to Turkey for storage. In return, the West would provide
>> isotopes for Iran's medical research reactors. President Obama furiously
>> denounced Brazil and Turkey for breaking ranks, and quickly imposed harsher
>> sanctions. Irritated, Brazil released a letter from Obama in which he had
>> proposed this arrangement, presumably assuming that Iran would reject it.
>> The incident quickly disappeared from view.
>>
>> "Also in 2010, the NPT members called for an international conference to
>> carry forward a long-standing Arab initiative to establish a zone free of
>> weapons of mass destruction in the region, to be held in Helsinki in
>> December 2012. Israel refused to attend. Iran agreed to do so,
>> unconditionally.
>>
>> "The U.S. then announced that the conference was canceled, reiterating
>> Israel's objections. The Arab states, the European Parliament and Russia
>> called for a rapid reconvening of the conference, while the U.N. General
>> Assembly voted 174-6 to call on Israel to join the NPT and open its
>> facilities to inspection. Voting "no" were the United States, Israel,
>> Canada, Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Palau" - apparently the
>> "international community" to whom you say "U.S. negotiators [wish] to
>> provide assurance..."
>>
>> Obama, in his usual mendacity, has been quite consistent in his hostility
>> to Iran, even though his threats violate the UN Charter: during his
>> campaign for a Senate seat a decade ago, Obama supported the possibility of
>> a pre-emptive attack on Iran. On 25 September 2004, the Chicago Tribune
>> wrote, "…the United States should not rule out military strikes to destroy
>> nuclear production sites in Iran, Obama said … ‘having a radical Muslim
>> theocracy in possession of nuclear weapons is worse [than] us launching
>> some missile strikes into Iran…’ he said."
>>
>> Instead of this dishonest MoveOn petition, we should demand Obama lift
>> the sanctions on Iran, stop the bombing and the continuing threats (he's
>> now bombed eight predominately Muslim countries - two more than George
>> Bush), and remove US troops from the Middle East. That alone will
>> "de-escalate tensions in the Middle East, helping us prevent war in the
>> future.”
>>
>> Regards, CGE
>>
>> On Oct 22, 2014, at 12:46 PM, Robert Naiman <noreply at list.moveon.org>
>> wrote:
>>
>> Dear C. G. Estabrook,
>>
>> U.S. negotiators are facing a *November 24 deadline* to try to conclude
>> a comprehensive agreement with Iran on constraining its nuclear program to
>> provide assurance to the international community that Iran will never try
>> to build a nuclear weapon. The *New York Times* recently reported [1]
>> that the White House has decided to try to avoid in the near future a
>> Congressional vote on any agreement reached with Iran, using the
>> President’s power – granted by Congress – to suspend U.S. sanctions on
>> Iran, rather than seeking legislation to repeal them. *The U.S. Treasury
>> Department has concluded that President Obama has the legal authority to
>> suspend the vast majority of U.S. sanctions on Iran without seeking a vote
>> by Congress.* It is widely accepted by experts that suspending U.S.
>> sanctions on Iran will be a necessary ingredient of a diplomatic agreement
>> that constrains Iran's nuclear program sufficiently to provide assurance
>> that Iran will never build a nuclear weapon.
>>
>> But some Members of Congress, like Republican Senator Mark Kirk and
>> Republican Senator John Cornyn, *want to derail President Obama and
>> Secretary of State Kerry’s efforts to achieve a diplomatic agreement*.
>> [2]
>>
>> If key Democratic leaders don’t support President Obama’s diplomacy, an
>> agreement with Iran will be much less likely. *Urge key Democratic
>> leaders to support President Obama’s diplomacy with Iran by signing our
>> petition at MoveOn:*
>>
>> *http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/key-Dems-Iran-diplomacy*
>> <http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/key-Dems-Iran-diplomacy>
>>
>> Here’s the text of our petition:
>>
>> *“Democratic leaders Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Sen. Bernie Sanders, and
>> former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton should strongly back President
>> Obama's efforts to negotiate a comprehensive agreement with Iran on
>> constraining its nuclear program by the November 24 deadline, thereby
>> ensuring that Iran will not build a nuclear weapon and de-escalating
>> tensions in the Middle East, helping us prevent war in the future.”*
>>
>>
>> President Obama will have a brief window of opportunity after the U.S.
>> election in November to negotiate an agreement – *a window of
>> opportunity that may not come again*. [3] When President Obama and
>> Secretary of State Kerry negotiated the interim nuclear deal with Iran,
>> Senator Warren [4] and Senator Sanders [5] were early supporters. Former
>> Secretary of State Clinton attacked the deal through surrogates [6], only
>> finally embracing the deal [7] when opponents of the deal were about to
>> concede. [8]
>>
>> *Support from key Democratic leaders will help thwart efforts by
>> Republicans to sabotage President Obama’s diplomatic efforts. Urge key
>> Democratic leaders to support President Obama’s diplomacy with Iran by
>> signing and sharing our petition:*
>>
>> *http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/key-Dems-Iran-diplomacy*
>> <http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/key-Dems-Iran-diplomacy>
>>
>> Thanks for all you do to support diplomacy and help prevent war,
>>
>> Robert Naiman
>> Just Foreign Policy
>>
>>
>



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