The White House’s Cognitive Dissonance on Iran
Is the White House paying attention to what the White House is saying?
We already know that there’s a lot the White House isn’t telling us when it comes to the nuclear scam deal “framework” it claims to have worked out with the Iranians. Yesterday, Professor Jacobson explained that after the “framework” was announced, it became almost immediately apparent that the US, Europe, and Iran were not on the same page about how the deal was supposed to work. Then, David Gerstman penned a great takedown of the Administration’s claims that the protocols in the framework (yes, the same framework we can’t explain with any consistency) strengthen those in the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Even Dick Cheney has chimed in, saying what we’re all thinking: I think [Obama’s] actions are constituted in my mind those of the worst president we’ve ever had.
Yesterday, Senator John McCain talked with radio host Hugh Hewitt about the non-deal—and the White House is not happy about it.
During the interview, McCain laid it all bare when he said that, with regards to the framework, “John Kerry is delusional.”
“I think you’re going to find out that they had never agreed to the things that John Kerry claimed that they had,” McCain said. “So in a way, I can’t blame the Ayatollah, because I don’t think they ever agreed to it, and I think John Kerry tried to come back and sell a bill of goods, hoping maybe that the Iranians wouldn’t say much about it.”
…
“I knew that things were going to be bad when I lost in 2008, OK?” he told Hewitt. “But if you take a look at the map of the world in January of 2009 and look at the world today, my friend, you and I even haven’t had a chance to talk about the shameful, disgraceful actions of us not giving the Ukrainians weapons to defend themselves. That’s a shameful chapter.”
The White House comms shop, of course, can always be counted upon to barrel headfirst through a brick wall when faced with criticism. No exception here:
Naïve and reckless for @SenJohnMcCain to believe every word of the Supreme Leader's political speech. He shouldn't.
— Josh Earnest (@PressSec) April 10, 2015
Twitter had some fun with the glaring inconsistency:
You can't believe Iranian leaders. Only we can believe Iranian leaders. https://t.co/a3wySxzlZ8
— Rory Cooper (@rorycooper) April 10, 2015
On Netanyahu's pre-election comments: "We take him at his word." https://t.co/yi2ysUOXdA
— Brett LoGiurato (@BrettLoGiurato) April 10, 2015
At this point, the cognitive dissonance radiating from the White House is so glaringly obvious that it’s almost boring to keep writing about it. We’re supposed to trust Iran—but only when it’s convenient for the White House that we should. We’re meant to trust them to keep to a nuclear deal no one can explain, but not to trust them when their explanation is different from the one offered by the Administration.
Personally, I don’t think anyone is telling the truth. McCain is right. Kerry is delusional—and so is anyone who believes him.
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Comments
I MEAN CAN WE GET SOME FRICKIN TRANSLATORS IN THE NEGOTIATION ROOM SO EVERYONE IS ON THE SAME PAGE???!!!
There were translators. That is not the problem.
The problem is taqiyya.
Taqiyya is lying to an infidel in order to obtain a tactical advantage. The “Muslim” governments have been doing that for years, saying one thing in the local language, and another thing in english.
That is why MEMRI was founded: to provide reliable translations.
Meanwhile the present administration does something similar, for similar reasons.
As a result, nobody trusts either the US or the Iranian statements.
There were several other countries in those meetings though. Shouldn’t one of them be able to clear things up?
So taqiyya is the explanation for all of Tyrant Obama the Liar’s lies? I find that leader of Iran to be more believable and honest than our Dear Leader.
Nope. The problem is not “translation” or “taqiyya”.
It’s magic thinking on the part of sKerry and Barracula.
It has historical precedents. People hear only what they want to when they embrace delusions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRQFTECSlAE&feature=youtube_gdata
Just so. The Iranians have been very clear from the start on what they will NEVER agree to: they won’t stop enriching, allow inspections of military sites, or stop their program in any way.
They’ve never wavered from those positions, even as they bragged about the concessions they’ve won from the gullible Obama and Kerry – for NOTHING.
McCain would be more believable if he had been fighting this Administration every step of the way instead of referring to those who have done so as whacko birds.
McCain would be more believable if he had been fighting this Administration every step of the way instead of referring to those who have done so as whacko birds.
Perhaps Senator McCain is beginning to wake up from the Republican Establishment delusion. Certainly some Democrats are beginning to wake up from the Obama delusion.
Are we allowed to dream that in the next eighteen months, there might form in the United States a somewhat coherent, party-transcendent Opposition, strong enough to punch through the Praetorian Guard of Obama’s bamboozled media supporters and reach the folks in the street? We face an increasingly hostile world from an increasingly weak position with increasingly weak leadership.
McCain has been very consistently critical of the Obama foreign policy. He couches it in diplomatic terms, as used to be the Senate tradition, always being personally complimentary as he hits the policy.
“Wacko birds” referred, IIRC, to those favoring meaningless gestures like shutting down the government with no plan to follow through. Which was rather wacko, ya gotta admit (unless you’re one of them).
Wouldn’t you be more comfortable at Politico or Daily Kos?
“I knew that things were going to be bad when I lost in 2008, OK?” he told Hewitt
_______________________
” . . . and that’s why I assured American voters in 2008 that they had nothing to fear from an Obama presidency . . . because I knew just how big of a disaster an Obama presidency would be!”
Appears that there’s an epidemic of cognitive dissonance in Washington, D.C., and that John Kerry isn’t the only “delusional” game in town, eh John McCain?
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/04/world/middleeast/an-iran-nuclear-deal-built-on-coffee-all-nighters-and-compromise.html