Blade_Runner wrote:
Ah, yes, for scatter brained leftists, history began on November 8, 2016, anything that happened before that date cannot possibly be connected to Donald Trump so all of it is irrelevant.
Iran became a problem over 40 years ago.
During the 1960s and 70s, Iran purchased military hardware from the US from private contractors through a Foreign Military Sales (FMS) account with the US - mainly American made aircraft and weaponry. This was largely paid for with income from oil exports which was Iran’s main source of income.
By 1978, Iran was in the throes of revolution and defaulted on payments to the FMS fund. Emerging Iranian leaders canceled orders on major weapons systems. The US continued to carry the FMS and paid some contractors with funds diverted from other areas. While in default the revolution in Iran progressed, foreign-owned properties were confiscated and nationalized.
In 1979, after revolutionaries overthrew the Shah's administration and took American hostages, president Jimmy Carter banned Iranian oil imports and froze approximately 11 billion 1980-US dollars of its assets, and the United States ended its economic and diplomatic ties with Iran.
In October 1983, an Iranian "asset" drove a truck loaded with explosives into the US Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241 Marines. In 1984, the US State Department designated Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism.
Throughout the 1990s, Iran carried out a series of attacks on Iranian dissenters known as the chain killings. These took place both inside and outside the country known as, “extrajudicial killings.” The most famous of these is the assassination of the Shapour Bakhtiar in France and the Mykonos incident in Germany. Iran also continued to build up its military apparatus and nuclear program with black market goods as well as ongoing sponsorship for terrorist aggression. One of the most famous 1990s attacks that took place was the Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia. By 2001, numerous banks, companies, terror organization, mosques, charities, and individuals had assets blocked and frozen by OFAC constituting lists of entities providing material aid to Iran or illegally trying to access the US financial system from Iran. The September 11 attacks on the US brought about the US decision to hold foreign governments accountable in domestic courts.
US President Bush and later President Obama issued legislation making Iran’s government accountable for acts of terrorism through the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) and later the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) which meant that survivors and family members who lost someone in a kidnapping or terror attack or extrajudicial killing could file claims on the Iranian government for damages and then attach writs to Iranian properties held in the US for those damages. This means that not only could hostages and victims of bombings file claims against Iran, but all of the Iranians who had suffered attacks from 1979 onwards, including from the 1980s reign of terror, the chain killings of the 1990s, and so on. Some like the wife of Shapour Bakhtiar whose husband was killed in France sued Iran through both France and the United States courts.A History of Iranian attacks on AmericansThere is no question that, without restrictions or concern for the lives of Americans or anyone else, we should make damned sure the world's premier state sponsor of terrorism - the "DEATH TO AMERICA" crowd - has all the money they need to pursue their goals.
Ah, yes, for scatter brained leftists, history beg... (
show quote)
Blade, some people hunt someone to blame, some people hunt for solution..
If you want blame, also do not overlook that in about 1953, the US, via CIA overthrew the elected government of Iran.. a bit of a bad start with them i say.
The bombing in Beirut, this may well be the low point for Ronnie in my view.. the 3rd of 3 things that some would have gone to war over..
One was the kidnapping and hanging of a former american General, they hung him and sent the video to The white house for Reagan to view..
Two, the CIA agent in charge was kidnapped, tortured for 18 months and his body dumped in ditch for discovery.. Horrible death for anyone.. he gave up so much information, it nearly ended the US intelligence work for 2 decades.. He gave up the first group before sunset of his first day.. Imagine what he went through before they let him die..
Three, the bombing of Marine and french military... killed 241 Marines, 58 french solders..
driver was a Lebanese national with ties to Hezbollah, which as you said was and is funded by Iran..
Reagan, chose to pack up our military and go home rather then avenge these 3 and more incidents..
two days after the bombing, the US attacked Grenada; to detract from the shame of our withdrawal from Beirut..
Years later, Bin Ladon stated that this withdrawal convinced him the United States was weak and could be attacked.
so now we are at your point, which seems to be that Iran should never have been a member of any international agreement..
However, after all those decades of war and hate.. the agreement was working. according to all member nations and our own intelligence service..
trump withdrew and for all practical purposes it no longer exists..
It was an excellent first step.. it halted the Iran nuclear program.
Set up the 2nd step which was to address the very terrorist programs we all dread and hate..
So in a nut shell, 50 years of terror/counter terror did not work at all. So trump ended the only thing that had made progress in all that time and now we are again in a hopeless quandary..
Combine that with the betrayal of the Kurds, the implanting of Russia into the Mid East and our dropping out of world leader ship.
We do not even have to look at the virus of today for many excellent reasons to dump trump..
So yes, i will indeed be ridin with Biden.. both in effort and money..