So it appears that Secretary of State John Kerry (Neville Chamberlain) has just declared “peace for our time.” Kerry essentially made this pledge in Geneva last month during so-called historic negotiations with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Iranian Foreign Affairs Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (Adolph Hitler), as both Iranian leaders promised that peaceful objectives such as increased electrical output (citizen protection) are truly their intentions when it comes to their nuclear program. In addition, Rouhani and Zarif also emphasized that any newly imposed U.S. sanctions (military reprisals) against Iran would be a deal breaker.
Seeking to cut Iran’s oil exports, the Republican House passed a new package of sanctions (Great Britain started to arm with FDR’s help) by a vote of 400 to 20 at the end of July, thus reducing the money that Iran needed to fund its nuclear program (economic and financial pressures continued against Germany as a result of WWI reparations.) The six powers that negotiated the deal, namely Britain, the U.S., Russia, China, Germany, and France, have all come together, leaving Israel and Saudi Arabia out in the cold (Great Britain, France, and Germany have come together, leaving Czechoslovakia and Poland to worry about their respective futures.)
The current agreement for no sanctions lasts for six months and is renewable for another six months (the Munich Agreement offers a promise of peace and harmony negotiated to last forever.)
The Iranians have negotiated a restriction of nuclear development but not the elimination of the enrichment process, which can lead to a very quick armament of a nuclear weapon (stopping aggressive action was negotiated by German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and guaranteed by Adolf Hitler. However, Germans citizens were guaranteed non-oppression in any adjacent country to the fatherland.)
Meanwhile, the Democratic-led U.S. Senate was applauding a diplomatic victory while trying to convince both their Republican colleagues and U.S. citizens that an effective deal had been reached. (Conservatives applauded Chamberlin’s deal with Hitler, while the Labour Party was effectively saying, “What?”)
So we accept the words of Iranian President Rouhani, that peace is his objective, while his jails are filled with political prisoners and his scientists race to develop the capability to annihilate Israel with the flick of a switch. (So we accept the words of Adolph Hitler, that peace is his objective, as his concentration camps are filled with Jews and non-Aryans while his factories race to build his war machine.)
The time periods are decades apart, today’s technology is certainly more advanced, and the world is currently in a much better place. Yet, just consider if John Kerry’s statement regarding these most recent Iranian negotiations, “What we are doing can actually…provide greater security” is really any different than Neville Chamberlain’s well-known ironic phrase, “Peace for our time.”
History is quite capable of repeating itself, but will it be the same this time? Place your bets.
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