No. of Recommendations: 13
Well, according to reporting, it sounds like Pedo Don did much worse than Obama.
The Pedo Don deal lifts all sanctions on Iran, pays $300B for reconstruction, another $24B for good measure, we don't get the nuclear materials, and Israel pulls out of Lebanon which they say they won't do.
I mean, that seems a little unlikely - and I haven't seen any reports that include those details.
What we do know is that the deal involves the U.S. ending the blockade and withdrawing our naval forces, Iran allowing shipping to traverse the strait, and the parties agreeing to start a 60-day negotiation on nukes. There are other claimed terms, like Iran receiving some frozen assets either as a precondition to negotiation (Iran's claim) or only after they've met milestones (U.S.'s claim). But I've not seen anything like reconstruction funds being on the table.
But even that memorandum of understanding means that the U.S. completely lost the war. In late February, Iran was engaged in nuclear talks. We stopped the talks and went to war with them in an effort to force them to do more than what they were doing in those talks. We completely failed. Iran was able to use their geographic and military advantages over the Strait to force the U.S. to withdraw, and they conceded nothing more than....to agree to nuclear talks. Exactly where we were in February. Iran got the U.S. to stop attacking it, and gave up absolutely nothing to get it.
It looks like we achieved not a single war aim. Iran hasn't agreed to give up their nuclear program, they haven't agreed to give up their uranium, and it looks they haven't agreed to even put their ballistic program or support of regional proxies on the table (though we don't yet know that for sure, none of the reporting says that the 60-day talks will encompass anything other than nuclear issues, and the Israeli opposition is livid about that).
I mean, I'm reluctant to hammer that point, because avoiding a global recession requires Trump's base to be willing to go along with the idea that this is something other than a catastrophic loss. We need conservatives to preach to Trump's base that this is a stone cold win. Come on Lindsey...find your inner Pangloss, and let's hear how Trump has convinced you that this is the best of all possible deals!
