Discussion for article #244773
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Message to Americans: going forward, stay out of Iran, or go at your own risk. You now know that its vile government or even viler factions within might use you to extort concessions or who knows what from the United States by incarcerating you for no reason whatsoever. No President should be in the position of having to think about compromising United States’ interests in order to get you out of a place you could and should have avoided in the first place.
Recently we’ve seen the power of right wing long-term dead-enders trying to scuttle the rapprochement between two great peoples and force their country back into a medieval society, especially for women.
But enough about the US. Let’s get back to Iran…
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And this is why it’s worthwhile to have diplomatic relations with other countries…
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Wonder how the WarMongering RWers are going to characterize this development?
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No President should be in the position of having to think about compromising United States’ interests in order to get you out of a place you could and should have avoided in the first place.
Americans are probably safer in Iran now than at any point in the last 35 years.
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And of course, right wing pundits and politicians have been quick to spin this turn of events as a negative outcome.
Once again, conservatives resort to their favorite intellectually lazy and fundamentally disingenuous political tactic concerning all matters and events relating to Obama:
They’ll damn him if he does, and they’ll damn him if he doesn’t … cuz that’s just how they roll.
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I am watching Melissa Harris-Perry report on this story on her show. There is a panel of 2 Democrats and 2 Republicans giving comments. What is so disgusting is that one of the Republicans just admitted (when confronted by another commenter about his reaction backstage) that his initial response was to say “oh, no” because he didn’t want this administration to receive any credit. Can’t they even for one moment celebrate a successful foreign policy maneuver just for the good of those prisoners???
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No, they can’t.
Oh, wait – that was a rhetorical question, right? My bad.
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They hate it when they can’t be righteously 'right’eously indignant…
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Let them continue their crusade on anger - however, anger does not correlate to intelligence and diplomacy. Never has and never will!
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Congratulations to the Obama administration. Quiet diplomacy, especially with our enemies, is an invaluable tool in our foreign policy armament. As long as the Republicans refuse to recognize this, they should not have the vote of sensible people.
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The way they always do, by simply moving the goalposts. First it was about the sailors, oh, they’ve been released, then what about the reporters, oh, nevermind, now it will all be about Bob Levinson,
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Anger has served the RW very well… the US? Not so much…
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I see Rubio is the first one out of the gate crying “No fair”. The Iranians take hostages just so they can bargain with a feckless Obama/ Pathetic sour grapes!
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Very Likely it will be something like “If I were president, I would have invaded Iran, bombed them back into the Stone Age and burned Persian rugs on the steps of the Capitol surrounded by the freedom caucus and Ted Nugent, holding two AK- 47s and a blunderbuss. And if the prisoners were killed in the process, that’s a small price to pay to avoid being weak like our weak, atheist, Muslim, socialist, antichrist, beatnik, dictator, supreme autocrat president of a darkish hue.”
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This sickens TomCotton and BiBi …
Wonder if BiBi’s gonna want a refund from Tom?
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I recently watched Argo again as well as a documentary about the events leading up to capturing the hostages. It’s a scary place, and at that time the scary holy man Khomeini was encouraging the mobs and the shouting usually for the camera, chants about The Great Satan were chilling.
I seem to recall a reporter named Major Garrett who said some inflammatory things at that press conference about hostage. The spotlight does strange things to people…
I believe that these are the 4 prisoners that Republicans criticized Obama for not requiring release as a condition of the Iran nuclear deal. I was convinced at the time that the Administration did, in fact, insist on their release and that Iran was willing to do so, but not as an explicit/official part of the deal. So there was an understanding that Iran would release these prisoners shortly after the deal was concluded.
Score one for the Obama Administration and its competent and quiet approach to diplomacy.
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The fact that these people were released without our leveling Teheran with nuclear weapons first is proof of Obama’s weakness.
(Did I do it right?)
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