Just as you might expect, Fox News warmongers are not taking the news of a nuclear deal with Iran well.
John “Let’s bomb Iran already” Bolton was probably pre-booked. He fear mongered about “a nuclear holocaust and the elimination of Israel, period.”
Bolton got a little assist from host Eric Shawn. He said at the end of the discussion, “We’ve seen Iran already violate six of those (U.N.) resolutions. That is their record of defiance.”
Fox News regular Jay Sekulow was probably the most upset so far (though wait for Dick Cheney on Hannity later tonight). Sekulow – who may still not have given up on impeachment – accused the State Department of being “AWOL.”
Sekulow was nearly apoplectic at the thought that the deal did not include the release of four American prisoners. "The idea that we have cut a nuclear deal with Iran - and I will say, “the Islamic Republic of Iran’ - and did not secure the release of four Americans is absurd, it is wrong, and look at the message it sends to the rest of the world,” Sekulow complained. He promised, “We are unleashing every resource of the American Center for Law and Justice to defeat this.”
I think we can expect lots of Fox News appearances by Sekulow in the near future.
Shawn asked, "Do you think that they were basically sacrificed to get this agreement?"
"I think the president wanted a deal so badly," Sekulow replied, "it didn’t matter - anything in its way, including these Americans, were not going to stop him."
Media Matters caught Fox Business host Lou Dobbs saying, "It is not a deal at all, it is a capitulation."
That is not to say every guest was opposed. Fox found time for at least one supporter, Joe Cirincione, of Ploughshares Fund. But even he was paired with an opponent, though it was a reasonably fair and balanced debate.
Watch them all below, from today's America's Newsroom and Happening Now shows.
Provided he doesn’t have to participate, of course:
Bolton supported the Vietnam War, enlisted in the Maryland Army National Guard and consequently did not serve in Vietnam. He wrote in his Yale 25th reunion book “I confess I had no desire to die in a Southeast Asian rice paddy. I considered the war in Vietnam already lost.” In an interview, Bolton discussed his comment in the reunion book, explaining that he decided to avoid service in Vietnam because “by the time I was about to graduate in 1970, it was clear to me that opponents of the Vietnam War had made it certain we could not prevail, and that I had no great interest in going there to have Teddy Kennedy give it back to the people I might die to take it away from.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_R.Bolton#Early_life_andeducation
“Can’t wait for Darth Cheney to crawl out of his crypt to bless us with his fair and balanced analysis.”
No need to wait — he was a guest of Hannity yesterday:
http://www.mediamatters.org/video/2015/07/14/fox-turns-to-dick-cheney-for-commentary-on-iran/204420
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http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/US_ThirdWorld/dictators.html
There is some evidence that certain GOP officials went around the OFFICIAL channels (ie, the Carter Administration) to work a deal with the Iranians, roughly a week or two before the elections. If Iran would only delay any real negotiations to free the hostages until AFTER the 1980 election, it would help ensure that Carter wouldn’t get re-elected (although Carter was behind in the polls even in mid-October, the GOP was actually worried that the Carter Administration might manage to pull an “October Surprise” and announce the hostages would be freed before Christmas—and could likely pull off an upset and be re-elected). There certainly was no love between the Iranian leadership and the Carter Administration and Team Reagan decided to apply that old Middle East favorite, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
Of course, the Iranians pulled out of any negotiations until after the elections and Carter lost. So, in early December, the Iranians came back to the table but ultimately refused to give Carter any sort of victory by choosing Inauguration Day as the official release date.
But, I also remember how the Great Military Supporter Reagan dithered around and refused to take any responsibility for the deaths of 240 US military personnel, allowing instead a general to “take one for the Gipper” (compared to the failed rescue attempt by the Carter Administration in the summer of 1980, when Carter took full responsibility for the mission’s failure and the deaths of all involved).
And the great irony of the 1986 arms-for-hostages thing was that Reagan and his people wanted to sell arms to the Iranians while, simultaneously, supplying weapons (including chemical weapons) to Iran’s enemy, Iraq.
Just keep in mind that those on the right who are saying this deal will be a failure are the same group that told us the Iraq War would be a success.
Hey, Eric — Israel has violated UN resolutions more than 200 times, most recently in 2009:
http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2010/01/27/rogue-state-israeli-violations-of-u-n-security-council-resolutions/view-all/
That’s their “record of defiance”. I suppose we should bomb them next — right?
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And this thing about the 4 American prisoners – that’s a separate issue.
Bottom line – if Republicans are angry/upset, it can’t be all bad.
