Amateurs bungling Iran talks
The war with Iran is over. Or is it?
President Donald Trump said the Memorandum of Understanding, or MOU, between the United States and Iran would be signed on June 19 by Vice President JD Vance, because Trump had a prior engagement, a dinner with leaders in France on June 17. Seriously. But in a sudden reversal, Trump signed the agreement, not Vance. And like he was signing the menu at a restaurant, he scribbled his Sharpie while having dinner at Versailles. Vance didn’t even make the trip.
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Reports leaked that there was a $300 million reconstruction fund for Iran. “Fake news!” said Trump. Turns out he was right. It’s $300 billion — not $300 million — but what difference do a few zeros make? And not for nothing, when the Marshall Plan helped rebuild Europe and Japan, the Führer and the emperor were no longer in charge. In Iran, the mullahs are still very much running things.
But not to worry: Trump is sending a couple of outer-borough New York real estate developers, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, to straighten things out. It took the Obama administration 18 months — with seasoned diplomats and a Ph.D. in nuclear physics — to negotiate the deal Trump abandoned in 2018. The recently-signed MOU gives the parties 60 days to settle all of the intricate details the MOU only highlights.
As I see it, our government is being led by the most inept amateurs imaginable. It’s called a kakistocracy.
— George Devitt, Maitland
U.S. shouldn’t be fooled by Iran again
So many have pointed out the potential consequences if and when Iran misbehaves in the coming future, but all seem to have forgotten that it took more than eight weeks to hammer home the point when they did just that? One does not chastise a misdeed weeks after the fact; one inflicts the consequences immediately, otherwise the lesson is not learned. I believe that failure to strictly hold Iran to the agreed behavior will only accelerate its return to aggressive terror behavior throughout the Middle East and beyond — a point the United States should have learned by now.
— Bob Kring, DeBary
Criticize behavior, not identity
It might seem to some like too subtle a difference, but the use of simile in criticizing another person, is often preferable to metaphor. Think about it: What if President Trump talked about someone’s “behavior,” rather than their “identity” when he calls out a colleague for criticism? He might have a totally different approval rating. It makes you wonder why some aide hasn’t just sat him down and shown him how to use the technique.
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For example, if he thinks Bill Cassidy is a jerk, rather than call him a jerk, why not suggest that he’s simply “acting like a jerk”? One uses identity and metaphor, the other uses behavior and simile. Get it?
For a decade, my teaching colleagues and I emphasized this technique in the discipline of our middle school students because they — unlike the “grown up” Trump — often struggle, as we all know, with crisis of identity, when the reality is that the most of our problems with them are with their behavior, not who they are or think they are.
I’ve heard the esteemed historian and commentator Victor Davis Hanson mispronounce the word “nuclear,” but he’s obviously not a moron, it’s his behavior — his articulation — that is in question here. Are you beginning to get the idea? Let’s show the world that most Americans are not “stupid,” they just act like it sometimes.
— Maurice McCoy, Bokeelia
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