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From left, Head of
Mission of People's Republic of China to the European Union Hailong Wu, French
Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter
Steinmeier, European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security
Policy Federica Mogherini, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarifat, an
unidentified Russian official, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, and
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de
Lausanne in Switzerland on April 2, 2015.
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Iran's
President, Hassan Rouhani, vowed that Iran would abide by the terms of the
agreement. “Some think that we must either fight the world or surrender to
world powers. We say it is neither of those, there is a third way. We can have
cooperation with the world.” Rouhani added, the agreement marked a step forward
to changing Iran’s relationship with the world.
Yet, our Republican-led Congress vilifies President Obama
for negotiating what holds a promise of being a peaceful outcome to a dangerous,
difficult situation, if the tentative agreement leads to a binding comprehensive
agreement with Iran. The alternatives are maintaining
sanctions that have not worked, or even a worst-case scenario, war.
The reason is simple: peace is not profitable for the United
States. Peace’s nemeses are those who make their livelihoods and fortunes from
war. In fact, we are so dependent on military contractors in order to carry out
our wars that we can no longer conduct military operations without contractors.
So, there are great incentives for the war industry, the purveyors of war, the
government, and the military to overstate national security threats.
Additionally, “The
top-secret world the government created in response to the terrorist
attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive
that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many
programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work.”
So to maintain a world in conflict is also vital to the intelligence
and surveillance agencies and the industries that support them.
When you follow the money, it becomes obvious why Republicans
and others who beat the war drums rather than work toward peace hope negotiations fail. In
fact, there are those in the Republican Party who are endorsing
a law that would provide Congress a way to reject any Obama-brokered deal with
Iran.
The Pentagon, it would
seem, must seek
missions in order to sustain the growth of the war industry to justify the
military’s enormous size, to sustain its research and development, and
deployment of sophisticated equipment and weapons, as well as to keep soldiers combat-ready.
Essentially, it’s the reason the United States will always
find the money to fund innovative ways to destroy lives and kill people but not
find the moral imperative or the money to solve problems at home.
Copyright © 2015 Horatio Green
