Latest / Why We Do What We Do / Mini: Iran Deal pt. 2

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Mini: Iran Deal pt. 2 · Why We Do What We Do

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: You're listening to Why we Do what we Do. Welcome
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: to Why We Do what we Do Mini. I'm your
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: host Abraham and I'm your host Shane. We are a
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: psychology podcast. We talk about the things that humans and
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: non human animals do, and usually we talk about that
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: in the context of everyday sort of just throughout history
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: type stuff, but sometimes we talk about like what just
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: happens type stuff. And this is the rarest of all
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: things and probably the last time that will ever happen.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: Is a mini with two parts because we couldn't cover
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: what was in the first part and it still felt
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: like goes a mini, but a mini with two parts.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: So that's where we're at. Yeah, and that's what we're
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: talking about. But the first part of this is covering
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: the history and background of the Iran nuclear deal that
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: was created in twenty fifteen by the Obama administration. And
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: then we're really getting into the new quote unquote deal
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: that we have in the with Iran right now, but
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: before we get into that, If you like what you
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: hear in this episode, and you would like to support us, so,
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: you can join us on Patreon, leave us a rating
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: and a review, like subscribe to tell a friend. I'll
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: talk more about those at the end of this discussion.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: If you're joining us for the first time, then welcome
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: and if you're joining us for a second time or more,
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: then welcome back. And if you had not hear the
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: first part, these are short, you can go back and
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: check that out, but we will do a very brief
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: recap of sort of the highlights of the last episode
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: because some of them are going to be very important
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: to set the context for our current episode. Okay, that
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: was a lot. Is there anything I'd miss or you
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  Speaker 1: like to add before we do a quick recap?
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: No, I think that cover. I think we're ready to go.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, okay. Very importantly, in twenty fifteen, Obama, the Obama administration,
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  Speaker 1: with five other countries, the Security Council, China, France, Russia,
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: the UK, and Germany all had put together a deal
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: to get Iran to back down from making nuclear weapons.
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  Speaker 1: So it was like a big thing. The United States
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  Speaker 1: had frozen and held onto a lot of assets belonging
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: to Iran, so they really had They were missing a
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  Speaker 1: lot of money that could have otherwise been theirs, and
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  Speaker 1: they essentially said we will give back, we will free
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: up this money. Or give back some money that we
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: owed you if you comply with your part of the deal,
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  Speaker 1: and that was to lower their uranium enrichment to three
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  Speaker 1: point six seven percent, reduce their centrifuges by two thirds,
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  Speaker 1: reduce their nuclear stockpile by ninety eight percent, so they
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  Speaker 1: couldn't even make a weapon, and that they couldn't hold
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  Speaker 1: on to spent fuel, and that under no circumstances would
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: they ever try to develop or acquire nuclear weapons.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And also at this point in time, we paid
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: back or as part of the deal, we were paying
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: back one point seven billion dollars in weapons that Iran
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: had purchased that they never got. So you know, it
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: was a chargeback, which was rightfully so a chargeback because
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: they didn't get what they paid for, so we sent money.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: And in total, Obama had ended up bringing about one
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: hundred and seventeen billion dollars, none of which was ours.
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  Speaker 2: Super important point, none of this money belonged to us.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, Yeah, as far as we can tell, it seems
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: like this was all like assets that belonged to Iran
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  Speaker 1: that we had basically held away from them and then
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: allowed them to re obtain. Seems like that was how
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: it was completely set up. And then in twenty eighteen
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: and Trump's first administration, he destroyed the deal and had
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: nothing in place, and so of course I ran started
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: their nuclear program right back up as far as we know,
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: and obviously it takes a while to do that, so
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: I don't know how far they actually got. But Trump
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: was never able to negotiate a deal and then started
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  Speaker 1: bombing them in February of this year for reasons very unclear.
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  Speaker 1: So far, the amount that we have spent just spent
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  Speaker 1: on the war part of this is twenty eight billion dollars. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: that's from like American taxpayer money, funding weapons, bombs, military personnel,
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: all kinds of things of that nature. Thirteen American service
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  Speaker 1: members have died because of this. The Pentagon is asking
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  Speaker 1: for another eighty billion dollars. So where the first one
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  Speaker 1: we spent no money, and what money we had in
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  Speaker 1: our reserves that we gave back to them was already theirs,
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  Speaker 1: which was one point seven billion dollars. We're currently at
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  Speaker 1: at least twenty eight billion dollars looking for probably another
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  Speaker 1: eighty billion dollars. Experts estimate this could range from one
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  Speaker 1: hundred and thirty two billion to a trillion dollars and
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  Speaker 1: cost to us, which includes some other things we're going
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: to get to as the next part of this. So
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: that's essentially the background here of what has sort of
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: happened before and where we're at. Well, we're getting up
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: to where we're at currently, but that was the setup
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  Speaker 1: for where we were. Yeah.
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: I also think it's important to because we did mention
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  Speaker 2: the folks that died A like service members, there are
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  Speaker 2: about thirty five hundred Iranian citizens that A also died
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  Speaker 2: as a result at.
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  Speaker 1: The point, like noncombative citizens, just human beings who are
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  Speaker 1: just trying to live their lives.
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  Speaker 2: Yep. So lots of people are dying. And this brings
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: us up to today, which is getting into the quote
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: unquote deal or the Membranum of Understanding, the MoU that
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: is in place of note where's the last deal? There
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: was broad international support. This deal is simply the US
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: versus Iran. The Memorandum of Understanding isn't actually an agreement
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: to continue further negotiations. It is not illegally binding deal
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: so far, and we don't actually get anything from the agreement,
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: but Iran does. So it's really important to understand that
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  Speaker 2: there's an MoU in place and it's not legally binding,
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  Speaker 2: which means that we could also pull out of this
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: deal at any point in time, which is you know,
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: kind of there's a track record of this from the administration.
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  Speaker 1: So true, so true. So right now we're in we're
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: a kind of ceasefire sort of. That's a little bit complicated,
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: and we'll get to why in a moment. But out
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  Speaker 1: of this, Trump agreed to several upfront concessions before any
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: actual action takes place. We didn't get to this in
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: the recap, but as as a reminder from last time,
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  Speaker 1: in the original deal, Iran got nothing until they demonstrated
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: they were complying with the rules that we set for them.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: So once they had done the things they said they
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: were going to do and were on track to continue
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: doing those, that's when they started getting some funds freed up.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: In this current one, they have agreed to do some
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: things but not actually done anything, and in an attempt
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: to get more oil into the country, Trump has lifted
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: a cap on Russian oil prices, which increased Russia's oil
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  Speaker 1: revenue by about twenty two billion dollars, which they can
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: use to further their attacks on Ukraine. Trump also lifted
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: oil sanction immediately lifted oil sanctions against Iran, again not
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: waiting for them to follow through on anything. And that's
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: estimated to have increased their revenue from oil by seventy
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  Speaker 1: eight billion dollars over what they would have gotten. So
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: not like they will get seventy eight billion, it's seventy
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: eight billion more than if we had never left the
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: original deal in the first place. So what essentially happened
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: is without anybody actually doing anything or like they said,
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: we'll continue talking about this, but they've made no actions
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: to actually do anything. Yet they just get all of
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: this financial windfall bestowed upon them Russia and Iran arguably
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: two of the worst people to give that money to.
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, it's it's it's kind of like what
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: happened with us when we started doing ads. We got
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: this huge revenue windfall and now we're you know, we're
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: we're living in gold brick beds.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: So we were just talking about the fact that is
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: part of the memorandum of understanding, which isn't even actually
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: a deal. Trump has already freed up a ton of
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: assets without anybody actually demonstrating any compliance with anything.
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  Speaker 2: Yes. So also as part of this MoU where again
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  Speaker 2: in this deal we are giving consessions and Iran hasn't
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  Speaker 2: done anything about this yet. Trump has given Iran total
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: control over the Strait of Horn moves, which they have
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: already stated they will use to find tankers and other
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  Speaker 2: maritime traffic in that they can now use to put
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: pressure on the US and other countries by controlling the
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: flow of oil through the strait. The details on this
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  Speaker 2: part are fuzzy and difficult to verify.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, so it seems like how much control WUL they've
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  Speaker 1: actually gotten, We're not sure, but it does seem like
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: he has given them control and they're like, ooh, we
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  Speaker 1: can use this as leverage and we can now specifically
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: impose fines on people who are trying to run traffic
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: through here and make even more money that way.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: As part of this memorandum of understanding, Trump has already
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  Speaker 1: freed up twelve billion dollars of assets immediately without asking
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  Speaker 1: for or requiring anything from Iran. To receive this money.
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  Speaker 1: They just get it. They're like, we when assign this deal,
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  Speaker 1: you just get this money. Here you go, whereas in
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: the last time, again they didn't get a penny until
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: they had already demonstrated compliance. Here, they just get twelve
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  Speaker 1: billion dollars in assets that would been frozen, and then
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: is also now planning to free up another seventy eight
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: billion dollars in assets. So that's bringing that two ninety
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  Speaker 1: billion dollars of unfrozen assets, that is without requiring them
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: to do anything. And as a quick reminder, Obama's deal
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: resulted in giving Iran one point seven one point seven
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: Just make sure those numbers are clear. Trump is letting
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: Iran get ninety billion dollars after complaining about Obama's deal,
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: which gave them one point seven billion dollars of their
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: own money back, freeing up in total about one hundred
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  Speaker 1: and seventeen billion dollars after they comply to the terms
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  Speaker 1: of the deal. Trump has already given them twelve billion
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  Speaker 1: free is freeing up seventy eight billion dollars more. Has
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: already likely spent one hundred billion dollars on this war,
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: not even factoring in what Americans have paid in inflation
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: and the lives that have been lost and what it
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: will cost to rebuild. And we haven't even gotten to
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: the worst parts yet.
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So, speaking of the worst parts when it comes
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: to financial costs and all that stuff. The US has
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: agreed to three hundred billion dollars in reconstruction funds, with
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: no reference to where that money will come from at all.
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: Trump rambled about people investing in rhetorically asking if the
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: media wanted him to stop people from investing in Iran,
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: and that taxpayers won't pay for this, but experts state
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: the taxpayers will have to pay for this, and no
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: one has any idea what he means about investors paying
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: for this. Now, I think it's really important to note that, like,
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: we were wrong in bombing Iran, so we should be
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: reconstructing in that space, because we shouldn't have been bombing
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: them or doing this in the first place if we
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: would have kept the original deal that Obama had in
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: the beginning that he destroyed. So it makes sense that
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: we should be rebuilding because the United States messed up.
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: But I think what we have to talk about here
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: is that this is just an example of somebody who
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: made a malicious mistake, and now we are having to
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: as taxpayers and as citizens, having to make up for
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: that mistake.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: Given the amount of money that his family has made
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: through corruption and using the government to allow them to
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: make lucrative financial business deals. And I know that just
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: from Crypto alone, they've made over that much. I think
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: all of that money should come entirely out of his
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: own Yeah, finances, agreed of it, and pay back all
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: the taxpayers for the money he's cost them also out
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: of his own finances. Yes, and if there's still anything
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: left after that, just keep giving it to the taxpayers
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: until there's nothing left, because he doesn't deserve one penny.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: Yes, agreed, Okay.
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: The US also agreed on Israel's behalf to stop attacks
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: in Lebanon. Israel's the one doing the attacking in Israel
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: did not agree to this and is continuing to launch
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: those attacks. So just one thing to note is like
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: a part of this we're like we'll stop, it's like
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: attacked and Lebanon will stop, and Israel's like no, and
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: so they haven't stopped. And so whatever part of the
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: deal we said we were going to fulfill on, we're
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: not doing with respect to that right.
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: And while the previous administration was largely wiped out by
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: the bombs, the Iranian administration, the people that stood up
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: to take their place, are much more extreme hardliners than
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: the people who were in power before, likely making them
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: a much more dangerous enemy with far less desire to
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: negotiate with us. And why would they They're like, they're like,
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: you just bombed us. We had a deal, and you
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: bombed us. Why would we agree with you now?
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: And also like, now you're giving us everything we want
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: and you don't even ask us for anything, so right, right, yeah,
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: we'll take the money and then we will kill you.
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: But yeah, they they wanted a regime change, they got
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: it to a much more extreme regime. So there we are.
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: There's also actually, there are no terms whatsoever in this
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: about Iran's ability to create nuclear weapons, right, they're not
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: in there. There are no rules, no requests, no demands,
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: no anything. Just an agreement to continue negotiating the topic
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: for another sixty days.
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: An agreement to agree.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, here's ninety billion dollars. Let's see if we can
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: hash this out of another sixty months. About what you
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: will give me in return? Sure, I'm guessing it will
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: be very very little, possibly nothing.
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, So I think we have to ask
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: the question of, like, what did the US get out
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: of this deal? We got a huge amount of debt
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: and inflation and no agreement that things will be safer
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: in the future. And I want to be clear about this,
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: This is not like acause I think that whenever it
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: comes to politics and you might hear us like share
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: our opinions and stuff like that, I think that it's
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: very easy to assume that this is coming from a
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: more leftist and like a leftist bent. But this is
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: something that's verifiable. Like when you look at this MoU,
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: you look at how much money the US is spent
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: on this, You look at what the agreement costs right now.
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: You look at like current terms, and the US got
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: the option to have negotiations and we got all the
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: debt and inflation and no agreement that things are going
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: to even change. Like we all we have is an
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: agreement to continue and we've lost a lot of money
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: on it.
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: And even many of Trump's allies are like, this is
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: the worst deal we could possibly have. Even Ted Cruz,
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: one of the most sycophantic ballsuckers of Trump's flock, is like,
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: this was a terrible, terrible agreement that we've reached. Even
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: Tucker Carlson, one of the most punishable people in the world,
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: has left the GOP in a large part because of
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: all of this, which is crazy because that guy is
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: like evil. Yeah, so anyway, they were too evil for him. Okay, Well, basically,
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: what we had was an agreement that was working. We
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: had that Trump came in and tore that agreement up,
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: devastated our economy, cost us tons of money in the
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: lives of some Americans, and then came back empty handed.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah that's what happens, yep.
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: If this was a right between two people, the US
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: took the role of one of the people stopping and saying, Okay,
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: hit me in the face as hard as you can,
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: as much as you want, and I won't fight back.
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: And the other person agrees and does exactly that. And
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: that's what's happening right now. Like it's it's absolutely a
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: one sided affair. And if you voted for Trump, you
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: voted for this. So here we are, all of us
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: in here with those mistakes that continue to haunt us
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: because thinking is so hard. Yeah, we'll go and wrap
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: up this mini hero went a little long for a
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: part two, but well that's where we are with a
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: Ran deal. Wanted to just get this topical thing out
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: there in the world. If you would like to tell
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: us your thoughts on this, you can email us directly
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: at info at WWDWWD podcast dot com or reach us
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: on the social media platforms. And I think we look
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: forward to hearing from you. I mean, we do, we do,
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: but you know, constructive criticism or you know, you know, whatever.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: Support is great. Yeah, if you like to support us,
• 15:51
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• 16:01
  Speaker 1: and we do really appreciate their help. Thank you to
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: my team of people for making this happen. Thank you
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: all for listening. Is there anything you would like to
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: add or that I forgot before we wrap this one up? No,
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: I think that covers it all, right then, thank you
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: for listening. This is Abraham and this is Shane. Why
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: we Do what we do? Mini is out. Bye. You've
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: been listening to Why We Do what We Do.
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: You can learn more about this and other episodes by
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: going to WWDWWD podcast dot com. Thanks for listening, and
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  Speaker 2: we hope you have an awesome day.