Tag Archives: Iranian nuclear deal

The Iranian Negotiations and World War I

Tower Red PoppiesWe are in the midst of the centenary for World War I. The recent placement of red ceramic poppies in the moat surrounding the Tower of London brought home its horror: a sea of red, 888,246 poppies, representing British commonwealth soldiers killed, only part of the estimated millions of deaths, civilian and military, for all the nations involved. Most of the soldiers were young men in the prime of life, forever unable to live the productive lives that would benefit their nations.

Today we acknowledge how horribly stupid this war was. A royal was shot in Serbia. Different nations lined up, driven by pride and perceived loyalty. Leaders thought the war would be a simple skirmish, over with in a short time. It wasn’t. Modern weapons changed the way wars are fought.

The reminder of that war, and the absurdity that so-called civilized nations allowed it to happen, caused me to examine more closely the Iranian nuclear deal that is going through the paces. I think I must support it.

Do we want to be part of another war in the Middle East? Look at the horrors unleashed by the last one we initiated.

World War I (and probably World War II, its continuation) wouldn’t have happened if nations had backed down, swallowed a little of their pride, been reasonable. But they didn’t. It wouldn’t have been a perfect deal for anyone but better than the alternative of WW I.

Negotiations are so much harder than starting a war, in the give and take, in the lack of complete victory for one side or the other. They are, however, superior to the alternative.

 

Understanding Iran

 

Iran, ancient Persia, is a Muslim majority country whose inhabitants speak a derivative of Persian, not Arabic. The recent agreement between the United States, Iran, and five other nations on Iran’s nuclear capabilities is our first significant exchange with the country in over three decades. Iran agreed to curb its nuclear activities in exchange for limited sanctions relief. Opinions differ, to say the obvious, on how effective the deal is.

Drop out of the news for a while and read fiction to better understand this unique culture. Digging to America by Anne Tyler, for example, presents a touching international blend of an all-American suburban family and an Iranian-American one. They meet in an airport while waiting for the arrival of their adopted babies from China. The story follows the families through the years, allowing the reader glimpses of the Iranians’ past lives and their adjustment to America.

Or try a nonfiction book. We have not had diplomatic relations with Iran since 1979, when radical Iranians, followers of the theocratic leader, the Ayatollah Khomeini, seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran and took U.S. diplomats hostage for 444 days. All Fall Down, by Gary Sick, an official in the Jimmy Carter administration during the Iranian hostage crisis, gives a fascinating blow-by-blow description of the events. The hostages were released literally in the last few hours of Carter’s time in the White House.

Or listen to one of the former hostages, Michael Metrinko, held captive and treated badly at times. He was quoted earlier in the fall as saying, “I happen to like Iranians . . . I had a lot of close Iranian friends and still do . . . I don’t like the government of Iran. Politically, I despise it. But it’s there. Almost 80 million people. Vast resources. We as a country, a government, absolutely have to have relations with Iran. Deal with them in business, international relations, politically. Let people move back and forth. The world is too dangerous a place not to do this. Not doing that is crazy. We have to be able to talk to them quickly if the need arises.”