Vatican welcomes Iran's historic nuclear deal

[Latias]

Really? I have found most states to act against their own interest.
Iran supports terrorism as well as proxy wars against others.

Trying to look at their actions with logic and expecting logical actions on the part of Iran is a mistake.
In cases such as this, one needs to look into who they are, what they do, and what they do it with.

:ehh:

My positions on those groups are similar to Russia’s.

I don’t care if they support terrorism. Long live the freedom fighters. The Mujihadeen and Contras! And possibly the preferred groups that the CIA favored in Africa that I am too lazy to look up their names.

What do you mean that most states act against their own interests? Certainly, you have different values and perspectives of the state itself. For example, a paleoconservative might argue that the US is acting against its interests by engaging foreign wars (reducing the US’s moral credibility and adding debt) and having a permissive immigration policy (undermining its social capital and burdening the social welfare system), but paleoconservatives have different interests from those who are involved in making strategic decisions and those who influence the legislature. The interests of a state is affected and defined by those who effectively wield political power.

But most military strategists, regardless of their specific strategic interests or orientation such as a preference for defense or offense, are necessarily interested in survival. State military strategists are not insurgencies or non-state actors, and have more materiel and personnel at their command. They do not need to commit acts of (suicide) terrorism in order to draw attention to political grievances (since the state possess diplomatic capabilities). (But the state may result in suicidal tactics if it faces an existential treat, such as the Empire of Japan, but suicide is not certainly not a strategic objective!) Thus, the general logic of MAD applies to Iran; the logic is breathtakingly simple that it is amusing that people put Iran on a Procrustean bed to make it psychotic demon that isn’t constrained by MAD. Iran is just a bugbear, even if it has some fission weapons (probably would be in the 20 kt range as I do not think it would be economical if they use 60 kg of fissile material to create something such as the 500kt Mark 18 Super Oralloy Bomb.) Also, even if the Islamic Republic had thermonuclear warheads, I would not mind.
.
I am a dupe. Ahmadinejad never said he wanted to wipe Israel off the map. I got fooled into believing a “big lie” about Iran.

 

[mary_bobo]

The urge of some to jump on the bandwagon and accept this deal as a good idea is baffling. We do not know what is actually in the deal, only what we are told by Obama and Kerry. And by all accounts we kept giving more and more even in light of the recommendations by the Joint Chiefs. The president has completely ignored his military advisers all along. I don’t trust this president and I certainly do not trust the Iranians. Any country who operates on “death to America” is suspect as far as I am concerned.