STEVE PIECZENIK TALKS

From Pluto to Tehran: America is on a Roll from Space to Earth! 

Critics Abound with the Latest Agreement with Iran: Expected but Inappropriately Hysterical!
Now that the deal between Iran and America has been culminated after years of negotiating, I must congratulate President Obama and his administration—including the civilians, military personnel, and intelligence community. For most of you who have never had the pleasure of negotiating an international treaty with any foreign countries, I can assure you that it is arduous and invariably thankless. Predictably, the hackneyed misanthrope of past administrations, be they famous or infamous, immediately rush to the media to make pronouncements which may sound erudite and profound but really reflect their envy and self-loathing for the inevitable process of aging and becoming less than irrelevant.

I have been a healthy critic of the Obama administration from the very beginning. However, I must admit that years ago, when I first realized that Obama and his administration, including all elements of military/civilian capabilities, were involved in a discrete and serious detente with Iran, I maintained that the Iran deal would be inevitable. The times have changed since I refused President Carter’s order to negotiate with Ramsey Clark [inept left wing political crony] with Ayatollah Khomeini.

I remembered that upon my final resignation after having been insubordinate for the second time to President Carter [Hanafi Muslim Hostage Siege—I refused to ‘stand down’], I informed Sec State Cyrus Vance that the Iran Hostage Siege would last quite a long time. Then almost a decade ago, I went on my own to Iran and visited the house of Ayatollah Khomeini were his family was extremely gracious and welcoming, as most Persians are. 

After having espied countless nose jobs of young Persian women and absorbing the fact that most of the people I had seen were young, intelligent and pro-America, I knew then, that in short time Iran and America would once again enter in a mutually satisfactory economic/political relationship. It was Obama and his team including Sec State John Kerry who have accomplished the long overdue rapprochement.

I would like to make it clear that from the very beginning of my support for this treaty years ago, I was certain that the geopolitical and psychological realities of the Middle East would have to change. My response to recent comments by some of my former colleagues, many of whom have never been involved in implementing a treaty or changing a regime without violence, is that they have concentrated on the wrong issue—nuclear weapons and nuclear reactors. Those issues are a complete distraction created by our erstwhile dependent, pubescent country which Americans have ‘breast fed’ for too long—Israel, the ‘nipple dependent infant of a country’. 

The bold calculations that were made by this administration with all of its component parts was that Iran and Turkey would become the new hegemony of the Middle East while we, Americans, shift to the Far East and concentrate our time, energy and concerns in Asia where the prospects for peace and economic growth exceed normal expectations.

Understandably, most of ‘think tank’ experts including the ones who had considered themselves ‘realpolitik experts’ missed the crucial shift in the schwerpunkt [center of gravity] when our illustrious Gen. David Petraeus and Gen Martin Dempsey clearly stated that Israel is a ‘strategic liability’ and that our concerns are not to be mired in ancient, tribal conflicts that had it’s precedent centuries ago.

A close friend of mine whom I respect, asked me if I thought that Obama, suis generis, has the ability to engage in a strategic world overview. I assured him that like our previous boss, Pres. Nixon, Obama had shown the same personality traits of someone who wanted to accomplish major achievements in world affairs like the opening of Communist Cuba [my birth place] as well as something as difficult and impossible as peace with Iran.

Remember what I have written continuously in my blogs: Obama was what I have derisively described in the past as ‘a CIA baby’ –nurtured and fostered since childhood as an operative with great potential.  I referenced his mother who worked in Indonesia as a trained ‘anthropologist’ who spoke several languages. I mentioned his maternal grandfather and grand mother who both worked in the East-West Center, a place known as a ‘cut-out’ for the CIA.

Now, I must congratulate the CIA/ MI and other intelligence communities for having nurtured and supported one of their own to initiate a bold peace plan that truly deserves a Nobel Prize. It was the latter award that gave me the clue that Iran and Obama would make certain that he would one day deserve that award that was given to him prematurely.

Many say that times are changing and we have entered into a period of chaos and world disorder. I disagree.We have always had wars or low intensity conflicts even during the Cold Wars but then, we did not have the internet and social media to augment the intensities of conflicts that were de rigeur for centuries.

As for the fear of an Arab Nuclear Bomb, please, I have often written about the most dysfunctional state of Pakistan which has hundreds of nuclear bombs with delivery capacity that can easily reach Israel or India. Yet never one word is uttered about the ISI control of a nuclear arsenal where Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and the Haqqanni network of terrorists know everything about this loosely controlled arsenal of massive destruction. Why is the Pakistan Bomb never mentioned by our antiquated pundits who slobber words of righteous indignation as they reside in our tax supported nursing homes a.k.a Washington D.C. “Think Tanks”?

America, enjoy the fact that in one day, we have been able to achieve what most nations in the world can only dream of---we reached Pluto, the planet as well as correctly realigned the Middle East where our new surrogates will try to maintain some stability. Now Turkey will oversee the Sunni States as they have done for centuries under the guise of the Ottoman Empire. Turkey will continue to engage those post neo-colonialist nations created by the British: Saudi Arabia; UAE; Jordan; offering to engage in war or peace. Now those aforementioned countries are frozen in time with a stale economy where fossil fuels can never resurrect their impending futures.

As for Iran, along with Russia, China, and some of the EU countries, they will temper the Civil Wars in Syria; Lebanon; Bahrain; Yemen; Iraq. Contrary to the zeitgeist of hysteria and panic, I am one American who is extremely proud of the President and the members of his administration who helped to bring Iran back into the fold of nations. I have waited longer than the ride to Pluto, almost thirty some years.

I will quietly celebrate something that I could never expect would happened in my own limited life time: a Treaty with Iran. Next watch the American, German, French, Russian, Chinese companies enter into a melee of infrastructures and booming oil wells long discarded by wars and negligence. Always remember that most treaties are never about the manifest content but about “Money”!!  Everyone stands to make a fortune in the new wild-west called Persia/Iran [Boeing; UAL; American Airlines; Peugot; Halliburton; Shlumberger]. 

Already some of our senior former Ambassadors are lining up to line their pockets with whatever currencies they may want to use.

Merci !!!!