For the Sake of Doing SOMETHING (and this week’s coupon)

So – while I was on a business trip in Colorado, Wyoming, and Nebraska, and not really paying attention to the rest of the world, a supposed deadline came and went for an agreement about Iran’s nuclear program (March 31^st, I believe.) I don’t know who decided that this date was important, but it was treated as though it was a life or death matter (until it didn’t happen.)

On April 2^nd, we have the announcement, trumpeted in the media, of an HISTORIC AGREEMENT (why on April 2^nd? April Fool’s Day would have been more fitting.)

So what is this agreement? Aside from being a bad deal (& no, I’m not going to analyze why it’s a bad deal – it’s obvious, and that’s not my purpose here), it is only a bad FRAMEWORK for a bad deal so we can continue talking until the next artificial (and meaningless) deadline.

The HISTORICALNESS (or is it HYSTERICALNESS?) surrounding this agreement has echoes of Chamberlain’s declaration of PEACE FOR OUR TIME after the Munich Agreement on September 30^th, 1938 (we all know that TIME IS SHORT: World War II started less than a year after that agreement was signed.)

To all appearances (this from our fellow negotiators) the U.S., desperate to have SOMETHING the Iranians would agree to, GAVE AWAY THE FARM to secure that agreement (with a regime that can’t be trusted) - just for the sake of saying “THERE! WE DID SOMETHING!” Now it’s time to barrel forward to the next deadline. Because deadlines are what matter – not what you do - just as long as you do it.

This wasn’t the only thing we could have chosen to do. We could have kept sanctions in place and piled on more to slow down their ambitions. We could have insisted that they stop all their funding of terrorism. We could have just said: “If you don’t stop chanting ‘DEATH TO AMERICA’, we won’t sign anything.” Or we could have bombed the living daylights out of them (I know – maybe not the best option, although we may ultimately have no choice, but it WAS an option and should have been held over their hate-filled, murderous heads.)

Or we could have chosen to do NOTHING and let the silly deadline pass. NO agreement is better than a BAD one. Much as refusing to give in to President Obama’s immigration demands and NOT passing legislation he wants is an act in itself.

The Republicans in Congress have been labeled (by their opponents) as DO NOTHING. Well, just saying NO and stopping a bad idea is doing SOMETHING.  And doing SOMETHING STUPID is not an accomplishment.

Just saying…

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This week’s featured story is “Sasqwhat?”, in which a teen goes through some unique growing pains. Here’s the smashwords.com link: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/283890?ref=NoTimeToThink    

Use coupon code VD49Q to save 50% off the list price at check out at smashwords. The coupon will be good through Monday, April 13^th. Enjoy!

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William Mangieri’s writing can be found in many places, such as:

• His Amazon Author page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B008O8CBDY
• Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/william-mangieri?store=book&keyword=william+mangieri
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