(01-08-2020 12:16 PM)mrbig Wrote: [ -> ]I advocate for the agreement. We were better when it was in place then we are today. Iran destroyed centrifuges and significantly reduced its stockpile. If it was violating the agreement with secret sites like indicted Prime Minister Netanyahu claimed in the link posted by 69/70/75, then that would have been discovered and sanctions would have been clamped back down.
Maybe, maybe not. We had inspectors on the ground in Iraq, and they couldn't tell us definitively whether there were or were not NBC weapons there. If they want to hide it from inspectors, they can.
Quote:Only then, the world would have been on the side of the US in reimposing sanctions instead of against the US.
Maybe, maybe not. If they had businesses established in Iran and making money, they would have been hard pressed to go along.
Quote:The conservatives here like to attack the deal and you all act like you are either Iran experts or nuclear proliferation experts.
Don't know whether I qualify as an expert, but as far as Iran and Saudi, I've been on the ground in both countries, worked in naval intel in the area for a year, had business clients in the area (mostly UAE), and read classifies intel on the area for 20 years
As far as nukes, I did have that intel experience that included the Israeli nukes, and I personally (jointly with a second person) did have custody of the nuke launch codes for a couple of years.
Quote:Perhaps someone on here is and I'm not aware of it, and if so, I can certainly weigh your opinions a little differently. I fully admit that I'm not an expert on either. But when Russia, China, the EU, France, Germany, and the UK (and their respective experts) all agree that the deal should stay in place and made the world a little safer, then I trust the decision of those folks over some people on a message board (conservative or progressive), regardless of how smart and articulate the people here can be.
You can weigh my opinions as you like. That's your business, not mine. But it does seem that there was considerable opposition among senior retired military people (active duty have to keep their mouths shut).
Quote:I get that the inspections regime was far from perfect and that Iran might have had secret sites.
And that's the whole problem. As long as they can have secret sites, be assured that they will. My understanding is that their military bases are still no-go places. And no matter how many inspectors we have or how many inspections they perform, unless they have access to all those sites, it's no good.
Quote:But they did reduce their known stockpile and known centrifuges. I keep looking for details on how the inspection regime changed. What I have seen so far is that the number of inspectors assigned to Iran increased from 50 to 150 and Iran agreed to a number of in-facility technologies (radiation detection, seals with fiber optics, satellite imaging) that they previously opposed. I saw plenty of comments from past and present inspectors saying that the JCPOA strengthened inspections, but not as many details as I hoped explaining specifically how. Doing my best to be informed so that I can adjust my opinions accordingly.
Inspectors have a vested interest in overstating the effectiveness of their inspections. Yeah, it was better than the Iraq inspection protocol, but it still had enough holes you could drive a Mack truck through. And Iran is a much, much larger country that Iraq, with mountains that give you more places to hide.
A good agreement would have been useful. A good agreement IMO would ave included:
1) Anywhere, anytime inspections, with no places red lined and with maybe a 24-hour warning.
2) The money would have been released in tranches, maybe 10% a year for 10 years, or maybe starting with smaller amounts and working up, contingent on good behavior by Iran,
3) Some restrictions on their missile program. Building a nuke warhead is the easy part of the problem. The hard part is the delivery vehicle. Letting them proceed with missile development means that in 10 years they could have a missile ready. Then its just a matter of making a warhead and bolting it on.
That would have been an improvement. What we got, not so much.