“Yes we can” work toward peace
by digby
Neoconnish heads are spinning like tops all over TV this morning, which means they’ve lost a big one and the rest of us have won a bit of sanity on the nuclear front. I can’t see the downside to this deal and it’s hard to find anyone but the most hawkish of “real men go to Tehran” hard cases who do. There will undoubtedly be pushback, but this morning it looks as though we may have taken an important step toward a more peaceful world, or at least one with slightly less potential to blow itself up. That’s very, very, good.
I’ll just make this one observation. I know the job of president is one that encompasses a great many duties and objectives but I think every person who runs for the office has something they feel they’re destined to accomplish. Back in 2007 and 2008 when President Obama was battling it out for the Democratic nomination, this was what I thought he was running to do. All that got lost in the sturm und drang over health care and the ongoing economic crisis, neither of which I ever believed were Obama’s strong suit. (Those were the kind of wonky, weedy issues that animate people like … well, Hillary Clinton.) This big picture, nuclear disarmament, reorienting of the middle east alliances was the passion of the man who’d spent time overseas and had the global perspective since he was a kid. That was where I thought the hope ‘n change had a potential to really happen.
I’ve been a harsh critic of this administration on any number of fronts, including national security and foreign policy where the president has seemed to concentrate all his energies on counter-productive covert warfare. But the two big things they’ve done in the 2nd term are truly hopeful signs of some real progress in this ugly old world: backing down on Syria and this opening up with Iran. They are both bold decisions taken outside of our normal national security framework and are pretty much begging for hysterical criticism from some of the most powerful American allies such as Saudi Arabia and Israel, not to mention the local American lunatics. But nothing is more important than nuclear and chemical disarmament and those two initiatives have put that issue back, front and center, on the agenda.
It turns out that “yes we can” work toward peace. It’s a good day.
*By the way, maybe it’s time to start thinking of disarming ourselves too ….
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