NCSNOW
Member
With Iran, Russia ,China aligned. Why are we negotiating through Puttin /Russia with Iran: This is insane. Seriously wish someone would explain, what am I missing here?
"In the months and weeks that led up to Russia's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, Western powers signaled clearly that they were prepared to accept the disappearance of Ukraine as an independent state.
U.S. President Joe Biden virtually invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to invade in late January when he said that a "minor incursion" would leave NATO flat-footed. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, like his predecessor Angela Merkel, served as the Kremlin's unofficial spokesman in Europe.
But once Russian forces invaded, the West's plans to yell a bit and look away went awry. The Ukrainians failed to play their assigned role of Paschal lambs. Instead, they rallied around their flag and their president, Volodymyr Zelensky.
For his part, Zelensky captivated the hero-starved West. His rejoinder, when the Biden administration offered to evacuate him from Ukraine on the second day of the war, "I don't need a ride, I need ammunition," reminded Americans of a time when they weren't being attacked for being transphobic or systemically racist, a time when patriotism was permitted.
Once Americans and other Western audiences got a whiff of Ukrainian nationalism, it became politically impossible for Washington, Brussels, Berlin, Paris and London to turn their backs on Kyiv. And so, with little deliberation, Biden and his European counterparts announced a series of unprecedented financial and economic sanctions on Russia and massive shipments of arms and humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
For a moment, it was possible to wonder whether Russia's reminder that the problems of the world cannot be reduced to the pronouns one uses or the amount of carbon one burns on an average day would change the focus of Western elites. But it was not to be. The ruling classes in Brussels and Washington made clear that the war in Ukraine would not steer them off course.
While Poland is giving refuge to nearly two-thirds of the 3 million Ukrainians who have fled their homes, and Hungary has taken in 10% of them, the E.U. parliament passed economic sanctions against both nations last week. Their crime? The nationalist governments in Warsaw and Budapest refuse to toe Brussels' line on Muslim immigration and LGBTQ indoctrination.
As for the Biden administration, Ukraine's fight for national survival in the face of Russian aggression is all well and good. But appeasing Iran is the Biden administration's top priority. And Biden can't appease Iran without Russia. So to keep Russia on board with his administration's efforts to close a deal with Iran, Biden agreed to cut Russia's lucrative business with Iran out of the sanctions.
Russia can expect to receive $10 billion developing Iran's nuclear installations and billions more in arms sales. The implications for Ukraine are clear: The US is willing to let them fight the Russians, but will not help the Ukrainians defeat Russia, because the United States cares more about empowering Iran than helping Ukraine survive.
The deal that Biden is concluding with Iran is itself a stunning testament to the radicalism of the Biden team and its refusal to let reality interfere with its policies. It will provide Iran with $90 billion from sanctions relief. That astronomical sum guarantees massive cash infusions into the coffers of Iran's in-house global terrorist organization--the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, which Biden is set to remove from the State Department's list of foreign terrorist organizations--and to Iran's terror armies in Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, Syria and the Gaza Strip.
Iran will have the funds to expand its missile and drone capabilities. And thanks to the lax restrictions it will face on its nuclear operations, it will become a nuclear threshold state by 2025 at the latest."
"In the months and weeks that led up to Russia's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, Western powers signaled clearly that they were prepared to accept the disappearance of Ukraine as an independent state.
U.S. President Joe Biden virtually invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to invade in late January when he said that a "minor incursion" would leave NATO flat-footed. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, like his predecessor Angela Merkel, served as the Kremlin's unofficial spokesman in Europe.
But once Russian forces invaded, the West's plans to yell a bit and look away went awry. The Ukrainians failed to play their assigned role of Paschal lambs. Instead, they rallied around their flag and their president, Volodymyr Zelensky.
For his part, Zelensky captivated the hero-starved West. His rejoinder, when the Biden administration offered to evacuate him from Ukraine on the second day of the war, "I don't need a ride, I need ammunition," reminded Americans of a time when they weren't being attacked for being transphobic or systemically racist, a time when patriotism was permitted.
Once Americans and other Western audiences got a whiff of Ukrainian nationalism, it became politically impossible for Washington, Brussels, Berlin, Paris and London to turn their backs on Kyiv. And so, with little deliberation, Biden and his European counterparts announced a series of unprecedented financial and economic sanctions on Russia and massive shipments of arms and humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
For a moment, it was possible to wonder whether Russia's reminder that the problems of the world cannot be reduced to the pronouns one uses or the amount of carbon one burns on an average day would change the focus of Western elites. But it was not to be. The ruling classes in Brussels and Washington made clear that the war in Ukraine would not steer them off course.
While Poland is giving refuge to nearly two-thirds of the 3 million Ukrainians who have fled their homes, and Hungary has taken in 10% of them, the E.U. parliament passed economic sanctions against both nations last week. Their crime? The nationalist governments in Warsaw and Budapest refuse to toe Brussels' line on Muslim immigration and LGBTQ indoctrination.
As for the Biden administration, Ukraine's fight for national survival in the face of Russian aggression is all well and good. But appeasing Iran is the Biden administration's top priority. And Biden can't appease Iran without Russia. So to keep Russia on board with his administration's efforts to close a deal with Iran, Biden agreed to cut Russia's lucrative business with Iran out of the sanctions.
Russia can expect to receive $10 billion developing Iran's nuclear installations and billions more in arms sales. The implications for Ukraine are clear: The US is willing to let them fight the Russians, but will not help the Ukrainians defeat Russia, because the United States cares more about empowering Iran than helping Ukraine survive.
The deal that Biden is concluding with Iran is itself a stunning testament to the radicalism of the Biden team and its refusal to let reality interfere with its policies. It will provide Iran with $90 billion from sanctions relief. That astronomical sum guarantees massive cash infusions into the coffers of Iran's in-house global terrorist organization--the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, which Biden is set to remove from the State Department's list of foreign terrorist organizations--and to Iran's terror armies in Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, Syria and the Gaza Strip.
Iran will have the funds to expand its missile and drone capabilities. And thanks to the lax restrictions it will face on its nuclear operations, it will become a nuclear threshold state by 2025 at the latest."
