NPR Discovers 'Tensions' Post-JCPOA Withdrawal, Forgets History
When NPR's Michel Martin speaks to professor Vali Nasr about Donald Trump's threats 'stoking tensions' with Iran, one might almost forget that 'stoking tensions' isn’t a Trump innovation, but rather a time-honored Washington tradition. The U.S. withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2018, unilaterally breaking an international agreement, wasn't just a Trump whim. It was
the culmination of decades of lobbying effort by groups like AIPAC, which spent millions on lobbying and advocating for a harder line on Iran, views consistently echoed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu across multiple administrations since at least 2002. This isn’t about just one president; it's a systemic geopolitical strategy that happens to look a lot like regime change in progress.
So, when NPR identifies the threats as merely 'Trump's' and attributes rising 'tensions' to a single administration, it begs the question: How many times do we need to watch this exact movie before acknowledging the repeat script? Is Washington's Mideast foreign policy just a series of spontaneous outbursts, or is it (gasp!) a predictable cycle of destabilization, often at the behest of those who
benefit most from regional chaos?