The Iran Deal and normal Americans.
West Rogers Park in Chicago is well-known as a very Jewish neighborhood. There are lots of kosher restaurants, synagogues, Jewish schools, and stores that supply religious and kosher goods. Abutting the Jewish area is a large Indian neighborhood. The stores go from Teitlebaum to Gandhi in less than a block. On one occasion, my wife and I drifted into the Indian area and found ourselves in a luggage store. My wife asked the owner if there was a warranty on a bag that we eventually purchased. “Are you coming back to Chicago?” “Probably not.” “Then yes, there is a warranty.”
Americans have an almost preternatural sense of fairness. When Rosie Ruiz was outed for running only part of the course in order to “win” the city’s famous marathon, she became a pariah forever. Normal Americans—not those fake socialists and jealous losers—are happy for Elon Musk becoming a trillionaire and 4,400 of his colleagues becoming millionaires (including 400 at over $100 million each). There is no smell around SpaceX as there was with Microsoft when it was growing quickly during the last century. Musk put in a lot of his own money and saw many rockets blow up or fall sideways before he started to land them regularly and even catch them on the launch pad. SpaceX’s valuation is a reflection of the company’s success and the anticipated future of space-related activities. Again, play fair, and Americans will tip their hats and wish you success.
Normal Americans look at the Islamic regime in Iran and see nothing to like. Iran has been directly or otherwise responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans. Whether it was the Marine barracks in Beirut or the innumerable IEDs in Iraq, Iran is the address for the murder of a lot of American citizens. Add to this total its brazen lies about its nuclear activities, and one has a Class A piece of garbage. Why would the president of the United States, the very man who wrote a best-seller on deal-making, want to make a deal with such people? Anyone in Peoria could tell you that the Iranians will never uphold whatever is written on the paper they sign. How often did they claim that their nuclear work was not for a bomb, only to have Israel show the world their actual intentions? How many times was a secret nuclear site (like Parchin) suddenly brought to the world’s attention? Their buried uranium stands at 60 percent enrichment—something of no value unless one plans to further concentrate it and make it bomb-grade. Medicine and power generation need far less, while a nuclear bomb would only work at 90 percent or higher.
Right now, whoever is actually in charge in Tehran is playing games with the president. They somewhat agree, then claim otherwise, publish one set of terms, and then deny whatever Donald Trump claims are the real terms. They demand lots of money and continue to threaten to charge fees for passage through the Straits of Hormuz. The president claims that there will be no sanctions relief or financial windfall until the enriched uranium is dug up and removed. Would you send your son into Iran to work on the digging project and feel that he is safe from drones, snipers, and general attacks?
Any deal is only as good as the word of the one signing it. Who is running the show in Iran? The IRGC? Mujtaba? The leader of the Iranian parliament and his sidekick foreign minister? The Iranians are generating chaos and can always claim that the ones who signed the agreement are not the ones who make the decisions. Picture some low-level Pentagon employee signing a multibillion-dollar procurement agreement when she actually has no authority to do so. If anything actually gets signed, other parties will claim it does not relate to them, and they will continue to menace the Straits and demand money and sanctions relief. Good Cop/Bad Cop, Middle East Edition.
And much of the Middle East has made its way to Europe. In 20 years, people will be writing books, “Who Lost Europe?” And the answer will be the fools at all levels of government who let in millions of unvetted strangers who had no interest in assimilating or becoming a part of the countries that took them in and gave them amazing benefits. By the time there is a Muslim prime minister or president, there will be strong pluralities of Muslims in the local legislative bodies, while the police and army will be full-in on the DEI “only white people can be bad” program. There may be violence, but it will be too late. An unarmed peasantry will have no means to fight for its freedom. Maybe there will be pockets of “resistance” where you can still buy a beer and a woman can dress as she pleases. But England, France, and the rest of Europe will fall because—just as with Iran—those who should have known better chose to close their eyes.
In the early stages of the 1993 Oslo Accords, there were at times joint patrols of Israeli and Palestinian Authority (PA) police officers. The idea was to build trust and to have the two groups working together to keep the peace. Then Ariel Sharon went to visit the newly opened tunnels under the Western Wall. Arabs spread a rumor that Israel was going to blow up the Dome of the Rock mosque. Violence spread, and some of those PA policemen fired on the Israelis who were in close proximity. The whole mosque story was a lie, but it showed that under the veneer of “we can all get along,” there are fault lines that cannot be bridged. There is no agreement with Iran that one can believe is reliable. They will lie, cheat, obfuscate, and delay because they see their overall goal of destroying Israel and the West as being so compelling that anything goes. Just as the military-age single men who seem to be the majority of those piling into Europe only want benefits without giving anything back to their new countries, Iran wants the U.S. and Israel off its back. It may sign some piece of paper, but just like Arafat before them, they won’t do a thing that’s written on those empty pages. Europeans bring in “refugees” only to lose their countries to these people, while the U.S. signs a document, only to be hoodwinked and eventually bombed out of existence. How do you say, “Bravo!” in Persian?
I watched a bit of the video of destruction in New York after the Knicks’ championship victory. I focused on those doing their best to destroy various parts of a yellow school bus. I tried to imagine how depraved a person must be in order to destroy something that did no harm and for which he will receive no benefit beyond the thrill of destroying other people’s property. There is a lot of mental illness in the U.S. these days. Whether it be many of those living on the streets, the delusional people who think that one can change genders, or finally those whose only purpose is to destroy what others create and have, their mental issues are a threat to normal people and the success of the Republic. In the past, we were not squeamish about applying the death penalty as needed or sending people to insane asylums as required. Today, we let the violent criminals and the mentally ill run around on the streets, so that it is the normal folks who have to lock themselves away. Europe is being invaded by choice, and the U.S. is being eaten from within—also by choice.