The Morning Rant: Iran Is Not Of The West

The gulf between East and West is massive, and the best way to see it is to negotiate. Westerners, animated by 2,500 years of Western culture -- based on empiricism and truth and morality -- make implicit assumptions about the motives of the people across the table: that they are motivated by the same goals...an honest and fair agreement that recognizes the needs of both parties.

And those are laughable from the perspective of the rest of the world. Lying, cheating, outright stealing is part of the game, and they simply take advantage of the morality of Western culture to get what they want, and be damned with the other parties to the agreement.

Iran has never and will never negotiate in good faith. Their goals will never change, and until those goals are seen as 100% unobtainable, they will continue along the same path. And what are those goals? Regional hegemony. A nuclear arsenal. The destruction of Israel. The destruction of America. How can honest negotiation proceed if those goals are immutable?

Vance says "ceasefires are always messy" and U.S. "never indicated" Lebanon would be included in deal with Iran

The U.S. never promised Lebanon would be included in the ceasefire agreement, Vance said, despite Iran's claims it was, chalking that up to a "reasonable misunderstanding" between the parties.

Vance said he's not confident in how well Ghalibaf understands English, "because there are things that he said, frankly, that didn't make sense in the context of negotiations that we've had."

On Wednesday, the Iranian Parliament speaker claimed the U.S. is violating three parts of a ceasefire deal, citing continued fire in Lebanon, a drone allegedly entering Iranian airspace and a "denial of Iran's right to enrich uranium." Vance said that if Ghalibaf only has three points of disagreement, there must be quite a lot of agreement.

What is actually going on is murky, but it is entirely possible that Ghalibaf does not have overall authority, or he is simply lying and Iran had no intention of opening Hormuz. Or both. And the IRGC and the Iranian government are not one and the same, unlike Western countries with militaries that answer to civilian leadership.

That is why the only clear path to a peaceful Iran is the total destruction of their military capacity, and the decapitation of the IRGC down to the squad level. Negotiation will never change the savage focus of the Mullahs and the IRGC, and to assume that there are "moderate" factions within Iran that can take control is just silly. Absent a successful revolution and the ascension of Pahlavi or another anti-Mullah figure to a position of authority, Iran will not change.

[Crossposted at CutJibNewsletter and X/Twitter]. If you folks who are on X/Twitter would follow us it would be much appreciated!

posted by CBD at 11:00 AM

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