Forget that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPA) agreed between Iran and the so-called P5+1 consisting of the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain, and the European Union has by all accounts been one of the few real foreign policy successes in the eight years of an otherwise war-dominated the Obama Administration. Forget that the promise of normalizing trade relations with Iran would produce untold wealth – and jobs – for both the US and Iran. Forget that the Europeans are flocking in droves to resume lucrative trade with Iran, despite president-elect Trump’s inexplicable Iranophobia. Forget that as the “Germany of the Middle East,” Iran brings to the table “80 million people, an educated workforce, and a proud tradition of manufacturing”and a potential economic bonanza for its partners.
Nope. The US Senate is proof that habitually ingesting mainstream media “fake news” is extremely harmful for your mental health.
The Iran Sanctions Act, passed in 1996, would have, without Congressional action, expired at the end of the month. With the success of the Iran nuclear deal there is no reason at all that it should not have been allowed to do so. But the real isolationists are the interventionists in the US government, who cannot stand the idea that we can trade and be friendly with countries without endorsing every single thing about their political system.
But no. Today the US Senate voted 99-0 – unanimously – to continue the idiotic, counterproductive, economically-disastrous, and anachronistic sanctions regime against an Iranian government that has proven willing to do business with the United States.
Shame on you, Senators. Every one of you who voted to continue sanctions!
By the way, there was one hero. In the US House, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) – a Ron Paul Institute Board Member – did a “Ron Paul” and courageously stood against the tide to vote against extending the sanctions on Iran. Give Rep. Massie the praise he deserves – let him know you support him!
Daniel McAdams is director of the The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity. Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.
Iranian Americans are patiently waiting to see if Meester Teh Rump will put them in an internment camp when all the Iranophobes he’s stacking the deck with inevitably start a war.
There is no such thing as an “Iranian American”. You can be Iranian or American, not both. The same goes for the Irish, the Israelis, or the Icelanders.
Then I guess I’m Irish because this country is sick and so are you.
It keeps alive the memory that the Irish immigrants of the 1850s-recently were treated as cannon fodder, menial workers, drunken scum and even Terrorists (the Irish Republican Army are the government there and are still on the Terror Lists.) Even By The Lace Curtain Irish, aka the aristocrats who came over to Maryland. And the list of pejoratives isn’t in any particular order.
But those memories make up their sector of America. It’s twined into the culture. People don’t have any duty to assimilate, drop their old culture to be sold a New American one sold by Wall Street.. Just the same as any other. There’s no official culture of America any more than a national Religion, Language or Dress Code.
There are two ways to look at a bad memory, the first is Revenge at all costs and the better one is to use it to not let the old feuds crop up again.
Or permit any haters to rekindle the old wars.
There’s not a single culture that can be called The American Culture. Diversity is so very cool.
They vote 100 to zero for Israel too.
Surprized that Rand Paul did not do a “Ron Paul”.
I am not.