Senator Chris Murphy: Trump’s campaign against Iran a ‘catastrophic failure’

…from PressTV, Tehran

[ Editor’s Note: I used the Iranian ancient image for its symbolism of having been around for thousands of years when much of the world was still in the Neolithic level of development, while the US is only 245 years old.

Iran has been sliced and diced but is still here. As for who is to blame for our current bad relations, I would remind all that it was not Iran that overthrew the US government to install a puppet leader and asset strip our country after WW2.

Our own United States did that to Iran, and the theft continued when the Shah was finally deposed as the $25 billion he had looted just disappeared after he was deposed, and I remember there being no push to investigate where the money went. It went to the usual suspects.

So here we have Senator Murphy getting out of the Biden regime starting blocks by pushing for a shift in our dead end Iran policy. But, with respect, I disagree with him on one aspect of the failure, with his assumption that the US goal was to have the sanctions “work”.

I view it as something initiated in the vein of ‘we win either way.’ For instance, if Iran resisted we would have a bogeyman in the Persian Gulf to make it easier to keep Iran’s neighbors dependent on the US and dependable buyers of US weapons and as cover for keeping US military forces in the region.

And then there was keeping the Israel Lobby happy by having our military forward deployed to protect Israel, while it endlessly proclaimed it was getting ready to nuke Iran to stop its imminent nuclear weapon acquisition.

Israel is the only country I am aware of that writes its own legislation to submit for passage in Congress, and with virtually no debate. The Lobby does not allow for a comma to be changed, nor any evidence of our Congress being ‘uppity’.

Senator Murphy may be doing this to for show. I cannot imagine Biden not being as subservient to Israel as everyone who has preceded him, as the Lobby can just threaten to wreck all of his administration plans via Congress.

As Gordon does so love to say, “It’s a nasty world out there”… Jim W. Dean ]

Jim's Editor’s Notes are solely crowdfunded via PayPal Jim's work includes research, field trips, Heritage TV Legacy archiving & more. Thanks for helping. Click to donate >>

First published … January 25, 2021

A US senator has vehemently denounced former US president Donald Trump’s policy of “maximum pressure” against Tehran, warning that the Iran hawks, who used to champion the wrong approach, are now trying to prevent his successor Joe Biden from opting out of it.

“Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign proved a catastrophic failure,” Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) tweeted on Monday.

Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign proved a catastrophic failure, but the Iran hawks are unrepentant. Now they want to dictate Biden’s personnel choices, labeling those who support diplomacy as dangerous.

The hawks have been wrong, over and over. Why listen to them now?

— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) January 25, 2021

Trump took the US out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), an historic 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers. He also returned the sanctions that the deal had lifted.

Israel as well as anti-Iran American and regional officials reportedly played a major role in having the Trump administration take the unilateral measures that violated the JCPOA – a nuclear agreement ratified in the form of a United Nations Security Council resolution.

“The hawks’ theory was if we pulled out of the nuclear deal and went back to sanctions and tough talk, Iran would come to the table…,” Murphy said.

He reminded how the hawkish US officials used to believe that not only would the pressure force Iran back to the negotiation table, but also the Islamic Republic would start discussing its missile program and regional influence as Washington desired.

The Islamic Republic reacted to the campaign led by the US and its allies by asserting that it would never renegotiate a “done deal.”

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has said that Iran would resist the “criminal” US sanctions and turn the maximum pressure into “maximum disgrace” for Washington.

Murphy said, “Trump tested the theory. Gave it 4 solid years. It didn’t work. At all. And Iran restarted the shuttered parts of their nuclear program. Unmitigated disaster.”

“When Trump came into office, the JCPOA had aligned U.S./Britain/France/Germany/Russia/China vs. Iran,” he said, referring to the nuclear deal’s members. “Trump and the Iran hawks managed to shift the JCPOA balance to U.S. vs. Iran/Britain/France/Germany/Russia/China. A total disaster,” he added.

The anti-Iran forces, Murphy said, are still “unrepentant,” and now trying to “dictate Biden’s personnel choices, labeling those who support diplomacy as dangerous.”

They “want to tell Biden he can’t hire people to work on the Iran brief who support diplomacy,” he added.

“The hawks have been wrong, over and over. Why listen to them now?” he asked.

Jim W. Dean

Jim W. Dean is VT Editor Emeritus.  He was an active editor on VT from 2010-2022.  He was involved in operations, development, and writing, plus an active schedule of TV and radio interviews.  He now writes and posts periodically for VT.

Read Full Complete Bio >>>
Jim W. Dean Archives 2009-2015