Monday, January 13, 2014

New York Times Editorial, "Another Step Toward Nuclear Sanity in Iran": Times Editorial Board Struck by Insanity

As acknowledged in a New York Times article entitled "Obama Fights a Push to Add Iran Sanctions" (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/14/world/middleeast/obama-fights-a-push-to-add-iran-sanctions.html?hp&_r=0) by Mark Landler and Jonathan Weisman, the US Senate is fast approaching a veto-proof majority for a bill that would immediately slap Iran with new sanctions if it breaches its diplomatic commitments:

"With the United States and Iran about to embark on a critical phase of nuclear talks, President Obama is waging an intense rear-guard action to prevent Senate Democrats from supporting strict new sanctions that could upend his diplomatic efforts.

. . . .

The White House has cast the issue in stark terms, saying that a vote for new sanctions would be, in effect, a “march toward war” and challenging those lawmakers who support the bill to acknowledge publicly that they favor military action against Iran.

. . . .

Yet senators from both parties angrily reject that characterization, saying that congressional pressure to impose sanctions is what brought Iran to the negotiating table to begin with. If anything, they said, the West needs the specter of more sanctions as a 'diplomatic insurance policy,' in case Iran reneges on the interim deal or the talks ultimately fail.

. . . .

Democrats, they say, recognize the delicacy of Mr. Obama’s signing the first veto of his presidency on an Iran bill, and to have that first veto overridden would be a historic repudiation."

So, it should come as no surprise that today's New York Times editorial entitled "Another Step Toward Nuclear Sanity in Iran" (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/14/opinion/another-step-toward-nuclear-sanity-in-iran.html) begins:

"If all goes according to plan, Iran will begin freezing and then rolling back its most worrisome nuclear activities on Monday under an agreement reached over the weekend with the United States and other major powers. This would be the most significant restraint ever on a program that has threatened international stability since it was first disclosed in 2002 and an undeniably important step toward the peaceful resolution of a serious dispute. Even so, dangerously misguided forces, including leading Democrats and Republicans in Congress, are working to sabotage it."

"If all goes according to plan"? "An undeniable important step"? Opposed by "dangerously misguided forces"? Okay, so show us the agreement!

But the White House is refusing to do just that. As reported by Rosie Gray of BuzzFeed Politics (http://www.buzzfeed.com/rosiegray/white-house-says-iran-implementation-agreement-being-kept-se):

"The text of an agreement reached Sunday to implement the interim nuclear deal with Iran is not available to the public because the European Union is not releasing it, the White House says.

'The EU is not making the document public,' National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said on Sunday.

Asked why the document was not being released, EU foreign policy spokesman Michael Mann said that he will 'have to ask about that.'"

Do you get the sense that someone is lying to you?

But why should that matter to Obama's cheerleaders on the editorial board of The New York Times, who blindly endorse anything undertaken by Fearless Leader.

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