The victory of the mullahs
I was always a weird child.
I was reading the New York Times and New York Daily News when I was 9 years old. I was a precocious youth. (What the hell has happened to me since then I'll leave up to your own surmises.) I was watching Walter Cronkite and then Dan Rather on CBS. I have always, from my youngest years, been invested in learning what was going on around me.
1979. No, actually, before that. I remember watching the news and seeing the stories of the protests in Iran. I then remember the Revolution. The return of Ruhollah Khomeini from his exile in France. (Really, why did the fucking French allow him to leave his gilded cage? Fucking cheese-eating surrender monkeys.) And I remember the storming of the American embassy in Tehran.
I remember watching Ted Koppel late into the night on a nightly basis. I remember the failed rescue attempt ordered by President Jimmy Carter. I remember the wreckage in the desert. I remember the sense of failure pervading the country.
And, my friends, I remember the machinations by Ronald Reagan's campaign to keep any resolution to the hostage crisis until after the 1980 election. Republican treason.
This weekend, we saw another instance of that treason.
Donald Trump has abjectly surrendered to Iran and its dictators. The war he launched on the basis of nothing has backfired in a way which is nothing short of a national, strategic disaster. This is worse than the "loss of China" in 1949. This is worse than Vietnam. This is worse than Iraq or Afghanistan.
For promises and pinky-swears, Trump is going to unfreeze billions of dollars in Iranian assets. For promises and pinky-swears, Trump is selling out our only true ally in the Middle East, Israel. Iran is now the undisputed overlord of Hormuz. Iran will now be allowed to steam ahead and become part of the nuclear club.
Our so-called "Arab allies" have proven, once again, to be feckless, bowing to Iran and stabbing the United States in the back. But, of course, these same Arab states funnel billions into Trump's coffers. They're his allies, not ours.
From the Times of Israel:
Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Kazem Gharibabadi, confirms that a deal has been reached to end the US-Israeli war with the Islamic Republic.
An Iranian diplomatic mission in India cites Gharibabadi in announcing that “The immediate and permanent end of the war and all military operations on various fronts, including #Lebanon, will be announced starting tonight.”
The post on X adds, “The end of the US naval blockade against Iran will begin tonight.”
He tells Iranian state TV that the deal includes a ceasefire in the conflict in Lebanon between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group, which the Pakistani prime minister also said in a statement.
Gharibabadi adds in the remarks to state media that negotiations for a final deal will be held during a 60-day period, adding that Tehran will take its own measures in case of “breaches from the other side.”
“When negotiations begin within 60 days with the aim of reaching a final agreement, if such a final agreement is ultimately achieved, the key issue for us will naturally be the implementation of its provisions,” he says.
Gharibabadi’s remarks come shortly after US President Donald Trump confirmed that a deal between the two countries was “complete” and that he had “authorized” the opening of the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has blocked, and the simultaneous end of the US blockade of Iranian ports.
The post from Iran does not reference the Strait of Hormuz.
And if that final agreement isn't reached? Iran has nothing to fear. It knows it has the United States and the Europeans by the short and curlies, simply by threatening closure of world oil flows.
And what does Europe say? "Please sir, may I have another?"
The United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy say they are prepared to lift sanctions on Iran in response to steps on its nuclear program after the US and Iran say they reached a deal to end their war.
The deal, to be signed on Friday, will reportedly kickstart 60 days of talks over Iran’s nuclear program.
“Iran must never acquire a nuclear weapon. We stand ready to work with the US, Iran and the IAEA to this end,” the leaders of the countries say in a joint statement, referring to the United Nations’ nuclear agency.
Lifting sanctions based on nothing. Iran has no reason to concede a thing. A nuclear program isn't its ace-in-the-hole; it's its control of Hormuz, and the black gold on which the world depends, which gives it power.
Donald Trump is nothing but an agent of Vladimir Putin. The way all of this has played out has been the Kremlin's wet dream. Humbling American power. Elevating its Iranian ally. The American people had no problem electing a Kremlin stooge not only once, but twice. And Europe thinks it can pressure Trump to support Ukraine. Farcical.
The West reveled in hubris after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It crowed about "the end of history". Liberal democracy and capitalism were the uncontested winners of the long twilight struggle. They were nothing of the sort. Once the existential threat which the Soviets posed disappeared, the West thought that was it. Peace in our time. But it did nothing to secure that peace. Unlike after the Second World War, it offered nothing but pain to the former Soviet bloc. And the numerous conflicts which had been subsumed by the Cold War polarity were dismissed as local issues, not impinging on the glorious victory. History exploded. Peoples sloughed off the shackles of bipolarity to redress long-suppressed grievances, almost always with brutal violence. And the West looked on with the kind of concern exemplified by Susan Collins.
This war begun by Donald Trump has made the United States weaker. It might turn out to be the worst strategic catastrophe ever visited upon the Republic. And I can't believe that this wasn't by design. Donald Trump is a traitor, in service of a foreign dictator whose goal since 1989 has been a restoration of his nation's power. Trump will go down as not only this country's worst president, but its greatest traitor. May he and all who support him meet the fate of all traitors.