This is an astonishingly good Iran deal

[n2doc]

by Max Fisher

When Aaron Stein was studying nuclear non-proliferation at Middlebury University's Monterey graduate program, the students would sometimes construct what they thought would be the best possible nuclear inspection and monitoring regimes.

Years later, Stein is now a Middle East and nuclear proliferation expert with the Royal United Services Institute. And he says that the Iran nuclear framework agreement, announced on Thursday, look an awful lot like those ideal hypotheticals he'd put together in grad school.

"When I was doing my non-proliferation training at Monterey, this is the type of inspection regime that we would dream up in our heads," he said. "We would hope that this would be the way to actually verify all enrichment programs, but thought that would never be feasible."

"If these are the parameters by which the [final agreement] will be signed, then this is an excellent deal," Stein concluded.

more

http://www.vox.com/2015/4/2/8337347/iran-deal-good

[Fred Sanders]

1. Cue the "Agreement Truthers" who will suffer the same fate as all the others.

It is The World versus the Republicans and Israel now. If liberals in America do not want to get Obama's back, the World now has it.

Why do folks forget America is not the only nation involved....Republicans are in for a hurting...from everyone in the world...Germany, France, all the EU, all the UN...how will the insane GOP handle that?

[mountain grammy]

10. The insane GOP will simply pretend they don't exist..

only Israel matters to them and the mainstream news media who were counting on some shock and awe to boost ratings.

[MBS]

2. Kudos to Kerry and Obama

Last edited Fri Apr 3, 2015, 10:31 AM - Edit history (1)

for their courage and persistence. Kerry has proved himself to be a superb diplomat. With Moniz, too, and what seems to be a very adept group of State Dept negotiators (including of course Kerry), it's a great team.

Wishing them great success in hammering the agreement into place by late June.

[Botany]

3. and Energy Sec. Moniz too

He has a PhD in physics from Standford and taught @ MIT for 25 years
in the physics department where he was chair for a few years too. Moniz
and the people who were working w/him helped to set up the conditions
for this deal.

Thank n2Doc for the O.P. too!

"As a framework it's very good," tweeted Mark Fitzpatrick, the director of the Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Program at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. He added, "A sharp critic of Iran and skeptic of the talks told me after the announcement that it seemed to be heavily tilted in favour of the West."

[MBS]

5. yes. Thanks for highlighting this

(In my defense, note that I did mention him in my message text : ))
In addition to his unassailable expertise in nuclear physics, he also has shown his diplomatic finesse, giving to his Iranian counterpart (who himself was trained at MIT) some MIT-logo baby clothes for his new grandson.

We have an outstanding team at the negotiating table.

[Botany]

15. I didn't know about the baby clothes.

What class!

John Kerry did much the same thing with his Iranian counterpart.
Long story short Kerry found out that his Iranian counterpart liked
landscape architeture and Kerry know he was going to meet him
at a diplomatic event in Paris so he went out and bought a nice
book about Fredrick Law Olmsted, who designed Central Park and
gave it to him. The Iranian Foreign Minister sent Sec. Kerry a handwriten
note thanking him for the book and then put a P.s. on the bottom
of the note asking Kerry if he would like to get together and "talk."
to which Sec. Kerry responded that would be a good idea.

[Historic NY]

20. Diplomacy the art of finding common ground...

and getting to know those at the table. The little things really are the make or break in the end.

[Botany]

22. you are so right!

Maybe looking at baby clothes for a grandchild or pictures of trees, flowers, and ponds
"the big picture" becomes a little more clear.

[MBS]

27. Absolutely right.

Progress can be made only when we see each other not as cartoons, but as full human beings.

[MBS]

26. I didn't know about the Olmsted purchase!

More points to Kerry for excellent taste. That was a perfect choice. Olmsted is one of my heroes. Olmsted,and his son, seem to have had their hand in design of almost every American urban public space that I care about, not to mention the additional facts that collectively, played key roles in founding of Yosemite NP (father) and (son) the California state parks system.
Oh, good for you, Sec. Kerry.

[hifiguy]

41. Imagine that. Putting smart people like Kerry and experts like him

at the negotiating table rather than a bunch of know-nothing ideologues. What a concept!!

[karynnj]

13. Can't help but wonder if this was part of Obama's reason for nominating him to replace Chu

He was the perfect person to have there. As soon as he was a constant presence with Kerry at the hearings, it was clear they were dealing with complex technical issues. (It was a plus that the Iranians had an expert, with a PHD from MIT - though their paths never crossed - sitting with Zarif. ) Add to that, that Kerry and Zarif developed a professional relationship and seriously worked on an agreement.

I suspect that most (or all) the countries had serious, well meaning, qualified people who added their assistance to the deal. I think that is why each of them, in turn, thanked a long list of people.

[Botany]

19. That might very well be the case.

But the bottom line is that we had grown ups working to get a deal done.

America and the world lost so much when the 2004 election was stolen from
John Kerry. In 2004 I met some of the people who served w/Kerry in Vietnam
and John really is a good man.

This really is a good deal!

[hifiguy]

42. I think I was even more bummed after the 2004 election

than I was after the 2000 theft. Getting fooled/chumped once was bad enough. Twice was almost too much to bear. Kerry's superiority in all ways to what the little chimp showed for four years seemed so blatantly obvious that no one could possibly miss it. Many friends of mine who were not born in the US asked how it could possibly happen. "We're dumb" was all I could offer in explanation. It drove me to the internetz and DU, so maybe some tiny quantum of good came from it.

[Botany]

44. I was in the belly of the beast in Ohio in 2004

What I saw and what I heard then still haunts me to this day. The media,
John Kerry, and the Democratic Party on both the state and national level
all knew that the vote in Ohio was dirty but almost nobody said anything.

On election day 2004 about 6:00 PM Karen Hughes went to w bush and told
him that he had lost but all w did was to just laugh.

[MBS]

49. In early December 2004, I had lunch with a colleague from Bolivia

He could barely speak English. . but he did manage to say, "why TWICE?" I told him that it was a question I asked myself every day, and I did not understand myself.
Kerry would have been an excellent president, and, yes, the whole world -- everyone except the dumb 1/2 of our own voters who based their vote on "who they'd rather have a beer with"* -- could see that he was vastly superior in every way to the chimp.

*Literally, superior in every way, including beer companionship. The thing is, I'd MUCH rather sit and have a beer (or wine or water or whatever) with John Kerry, any day, than with W.

[spanone]

4. you won't read this in the msm

[Fred Sanders]

11. CNN showed the Iranian President speaking live on national TV about the agreement....with a voice over!

Never heard a word of his important speech to the world...censored in America.

CNN is clearly Bibi's mouthpiece in America, it is so blatantly obvious.

[spanone]

17. here's the kind of crap i read on cnn this am....

[URL=.html][IMG][/IMG][/URL]

[Fred Sanders]

18. Really? That is amazing propaganda and deflection. CNN might as well move it's propaganda HQ to Bibi's bedroom.

[Cha]

50. It virtually is. Speaking of the Bibster.. up to his usual fearmongering war chants..

Netanyahu demands Iran nuclear deal include recognizing Israel

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanded Friday that any nuclear agreement signed with Iran must endorse Israel's right to exist, while also insisting pressure be kept up to ensure a sound deal is reached.

While calling the emerging deal a bad one, he said the choice was not only between a bad deal or war.

MOre..
http://www.globalpost.com/article/6505786/2015/04/03/netanyahu-demands-iran-nuclear-deal-include-recognising-israel

[progressoid]

21. "Does nuclear deal end possibility of military force?"

Like that's a bad thing?

Jesus

[hifiguy]

43. Who wrote that? The Kochs? McTurtle? Captain Bourbonator?

Jebus.

[Oneironaut]

35. Usually they'll have a snippet of the speech

playing over and over again with some unqualified idiot like Bill Kristol spewing hyperboles and sniveling about the President.

Example: "OMG There's going to be nukes in our backyard because of this deal! Dictator! Appeasement!" (Cut to a portion of the speech where Ahmadinejad is slamming his hands down and looks menacing).

[muriel_volestrangler]

36. (a) Ahmadenjad left the post 2 years ago - it's Rouhani now;

(b) do you mean this one - in Farsi?

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/04/03/middleeast/iran-israel-nuclear/

Providing a translation from a language not widely spoken is not 'censoring' it with a voice over.

[Fred Sanders]

39. I have heard of simultaneous translation..easily available for a speech to the world.

Thanks for the correction...the voice over was by a CNN talking head talking about what the speech might be about......not a second of the the actual speech was covered. They were just talking about the speech even as it was being shown on a split screen, without any sound at all...unbelievable, really....for a news organization, but that is not what CNN is.

[Aerows]

45. Pardon me,

but Farsi is not a widely spoken language?

I'm sure the 110 million people who speak it would be shocked to discover that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_language

[muriel_volestrangler]

48. Not among the CNN viewers, it isn't

There might be a point in having someone in Spanish audible, since a sizable number of viewers of the US version might speak it. But not Farsi.

[Fred Sanders]

52. Once again, there is a thing called a "translator". Folks actually do it for a living!

[muriel_volestrangler]

53. And I posted the CNN clip using a simultaneous translator in my 1st post in this thread

so I've no idea why you're saying 'once again'.

[MBS]

6. Please consider voting for Kerry and Obama in "Times 100" poll

http://time.com/3747734/time-100-poll/

IMHO they deserve the extra props for this Iran deal alone, not to mention everything else that they've accomplished.

[karynnj]

16. I suspect some source on the right is spamming this - Kerry went from 34 yesterday to 30

Looking at other Democrats, it looks like others are being spammed as well. I would assume that it took a fair number of no votes to move something that far.

This is a ridiculous setup - designed I think more to give TIME a large number of pages viewed.

[MBS]

29. yeah, I noticed this, too.

Also, Putin has skyrocketed from a negligible percentage to outpolling Pope Francis and Obama! Ridiculous, for sure.

[karynnj]

37. So - it may actually be not just the right wing, but all those paid Russian bloggers

One way to look at it is to remember that weird 'poll" that seemed to have been created to been created to push John Thune - then being pushed as a possible Republican superstar as the most "trustworthy" in the Senate.

Someone in DU JK found it and given that it was during the dreadful 109th Congress (2005-2006) when most news was bad and many of us were still pretty down about the 2004 election. After finding that it was easy to vote as much as we wanted, we pulled Kerry to the top and later pulled many Democrats up behind him. We pushed the Democrats we liked least - McConnell for one - down to the bottom.

Whoever was pushing the nearly unheard of new Senator Thune was no match for us. I admit to being one driven to waste considerable time on this -- but it was at least as productive as playing the hamster game, where rescuing the hamster was good for our side - letting him die for the Republicans. When the game ended, Kerry had won --- though I suspect he and the other Senators never heard of this. None of us thought it important, but it was an outlet for frustration with the Congress as it was.

The point is that these stupid open internet polls - where you can vote early and often - are easy for a group of people - if they are invested enough. In addition, the scoring here is so weird (just looking at the results) that almost all those near the top seem to be pop culture people.

[AllyCat]

7. So proud of our US team! PBO, SoS, and SoE

What a great thing they have done for the world!

[lewebley3]

8. Thee Cheers for Obama, and Kerry!!!!

This why I vote democratic even though I hate the TPPI, if
we had a GOP president we would be on a war path.

[Hekate]

9. That's what I thought when I heard the outline from Obama and Kerry yesterday. Wonderful ...

... to have it so resoundingly confirmed by an outside expert.

[Johonny]

12. In a sane world wouldn't America be celibrating Iran taking a big step to join the global community

instead of trying to keep it an isolated country? The GOP policy seems to be to keep them our enemy only because we need a "them" to hate. Meanwhile the same GOP can't trade enough with China. First Cuba and now Iran. Obama is actually trying to open the door to non-hostile relations with countries we have had long standing bad relationships with. If Obama was Nixon with China or Reagan with USSR we wouldn't stop singing his praises.

[vlyons]

25. oh you hit the nail on the head!

From my Buddhist perspective, the GOP leadership suffers from the ignorance of hatred and envy. We all know that if a Republican president had brokered the exact same framework, the GOP would be lauding him and shouting from the rooftops what a great leader their GOP president was. Unfortunately, the GOP just cannot bring themselves to EVER congratulate or acknowledge BO for anything. That is the essence of envy and jealousy. They always need an enemy out their to be the cause of their own misfortunes and mistakes. Making and practicing peace means that they would have to actually give up having an enemy to hate and demonize. There's a famous Buddhist saying about hatred: Don't set up the target to receive the arrow.

Give peace a chance!
-- John and Yoko Lennon

[mountain grammy]

14. The only thing we have to fear

is the American Republican Party!

[Orsino]

23. I'm not qualified to call it astonishingly good.

But it sounds like the world is getting pretty much what we said we wanted.

[mmonk]

24. Agreed. Historic in scope in dealing with nuclear activity.

[Rex]

28. It must be, all the Right people are crying about it!

To which I have just one question to ask;

[Hoyt]

51. +1. That is really a pretty good gauge nowadays.

[clarice]

30. Middlebury University's Monterey graduate program !!!??? Royal United Services Institute ???!!! ...

Excuse me while a look for another source.

[n2doc]

31. Perhaps this one will be more to your liking

http://www.tedcruz.org

[clarice]

32. Why in the world would you send me a link to THAT jerk ????!!!! nt

[n2doc]

33. Because people who disparage credentials are usually reaching for a reason to disagree

But can't quite come up with that reason. If you don't like the deal, just come out and say so. There are plenty of repubs, like Cruz, who will provide you with reasons.

[Aerows]

47. Another in a handful

that have been strident in their disagreement with this deal, but when questioned what they dislike about it get vague, hem-haw and then just quit answering.

I think everyone knows *why* they don't like it, but they can only obfuscate with foggy "well, if's" and implications that "this is the end of the world as we know it™"!

[ozone_man]

40. Middlebury Institute of International Studies

They are affiliated with Middlebury College.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middlebury_Institute_of_International_Studies_at_Monterey

The Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (MIIS) (formerly known as the Monterey Institute of International Studies) is located in Monterey, California, USA. Founded in 1955, the Institute specializes in international policy, environmental policy, international business, language teaching, and translation and interpretation.

The Institute has two graduate professional schools, the Graduate School of Translation, Interpretation, and Language Education, and the Graduate School of International Policy and Management; and five research centers. The Institute awards Masters of Arts (MA), Master of Business Administration (MBA), Masters of Public Administration (MPA), and numerous certificates across a variety of disciplines. Its mission is to create an academic community committed to preparing the next generation of leaders in cross-cultural, multilingual environments. In 2011, the Institute claims to have produced more Fulbright Fellows per capita than any other graduate school in the US.[1]

[lumberjack_jeff]

46. Did you find one?

While you're at it, can you explain your concerns about this source?

[arely staircase]

38. kick nt

[Cha]

54. Oh, just kick it!