- cross-posted to:
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- cross-posted to:
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/47584733
Trita Parsi May 18, 2026
We should first recognize that restarting the war amounts to an admission that Trump’s previous escalatory gambit — the blockade of the blockade — has failed. That, in turn, was itself an admission that the war had failed. Which was an admission that the threats of war in January had failed. As I have argued before on my Substack, this relentless search for an escalatory silver bullet capable of bringing Iran to its knees is not unique to Trump; it has become a defining pathology of American Iran policy for decades.
Although negotiators have made meaningful progress on several fronts, talks have thus far failed to produce an agreement, largely because of irreconcilable differences over Tehran’s highly enriched uranium stockpile. And as Washington has come to realize that the blockade is backfiring, a new and dangerous dynamic has emerged: both sides now believe another round of fighting will strengthen their hand in the negotiations that follow.
All the more reason to tell any American trying to say “but we’re not all bad” to shut up and get to work. This gets a lot worse the longer you leave it.
I feel the same. I just don’t see how we get this country to lock in. Even as people get upset—in January 2025 over the DOGE terrorism; more recently over these data centers—nothing ever comes of it. Progressive and rational voices speak up, but we’re drowned out.
I fear there is just too much against us. There are too many distractions for the disillusioned. The only current movement that has overcome that is MAGA, with their ravenous hatred; but they obviously aren’t the solution.
I’m not giving up—for I and many others USA politics isn’t something we can “log out” of—but I can’t ignore that all the introspection and analysis I’ve tried runs into the same seemingly-impassible pitfalls.