Latest / Why We Do What We Do / Mini: Iran, Deal? pt. 1

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Mini: Iran, Deal? pt. 1 · Why We Do What We Do

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to Why we do what we do?
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  Speaker 2: Welcome to Why we do what we do many I
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  Speaker 2: am your host, Abraham, I'm Miro Shane. We are a
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  Speaker 2: that at the end of this discussion. But we have
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  Speaker 2: a lot to This mini is actually possibly going to
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  Speaker 2: go long, and we try to stay evergreen. We're not
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  Speaker 2: actually a news podcast in general. We try to keep
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  Speaker 2: things not so topical that they become irrelevant very quickly.
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  Speaker 2: But the news has just been absolutely on fire in
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  Speaker 2: a storm Tornado for the last eighteen months, and it
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  Speaker 2: is burning to the ground.
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  Speaker 3: M hm.
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  Speaker 2: And the rate of content is just staggering, as one
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  Speaker 2: might expect under the incompetent governing of conservatives. And some things, though,
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  Speaker 2: are just so momentous that we feel like we just
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  Speaker 2: want to spend a little time talking about them, and
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  Speaker 2: so that's what we're here to do today.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, so, unarguably the stupidest person to ever hold the
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  Speaker 3: office of President of the United States has recently signed
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  Speaker 3: a deal quote unquote deal or even like you could say,
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  Speaker 3: a memorandum of understanding an MoU if you will, I
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  Speaker 3: will to end the Iran war. Yeah, I think we'll
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  Speaker 3: also say that. Yes, of course he is touting this
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  Speaker 3: as a huge victory, but it is actually incredibly stupid
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  Speaker 3: and counterproductive, and even his allies think so.
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  Speaker 1: But I do think.
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  Speaker 2: You know, we've already spouted our opinions here, and we're
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  Speaker 2: going to do that because it's just too hard to
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  Speaker 2: resist doing it. But also we can be pretty objective
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  Speaker 2: and like we don't need to editorialize to explain just
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  Speaker 2: how bad this is, and we can simply state what
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  Speaker 2: happened before the deal, what is a part of the deal,
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  Speaker 2: and what's currently happening, so that things are very very
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  Speaker 2: clear and anyone who listens is as informed as possible.
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  Speaker 2: And this might be a rare instance in which we
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  Speaker 2: need to do a two part series of Minis, which
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  Speaker 2: seems like an oxymoron and not totally keeping in keeping
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  Speaker 2: with a spirit of Minis. But it's our show and
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  Speaker 2: we can do what we want, so that might just
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  Speaker 2: be what happens.
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  Speaker 3: That's true, So just go along for the ride, folks.
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  Speaker 3: It'll be a good time.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, you're here for the ride.
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  Speaker 2: And I do think this will be useful informative, and
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  Speaker 2: I honestly am kind of okay with the fact that
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  Speaker 2: it's so topical because I'd love to look back on
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  Speaker 2: this in the future and be like, wow, we knew
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  Speaker 2: at the time even how bad things were, because.
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  Speaker 1: They're about to get so much worse. Yes, yes, yes, yes, es, yes, I.
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  Speaker 2: Think we're ready to really dive into the essence of
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  Speaker 2: this discussion today. As we said, this is about this
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  Speaker 2: recent in the United States. There's this recent memorandum of
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  Speaker 2: understanding that was signed between the President of the United
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  Speaker 2: States and the leaders of Iran. And the first part
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  Speaker 2: to understand and get context here is what we had before.
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  Speaker 2: Why did we need to sign this deal? So the
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  Speaker 2: first part is to understand the deal that we did
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  Speaker 2: have before this under Obama. Now, Trump is breathtakingly stupid,
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  Speaker 2: and he's easily confused, and he's also a shameless liar.
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  Speaker 2: So we can safely ignore pretty much everything he has
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  Speaker 2: said about this because he included one accurate fact and
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  Speaker 2: then spun it completely incorrectly and said everything about that
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  Speaker 2: fact wrong. And we'll get to that in a moment.
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  Speaker 2: But we're going to just ignore what he says because
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  Speaker 2: it's utter nonsense and it would take more than a
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  Speaker 2: minui to even fact check every single word out of
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  Speaker 2: his mouth. Yeah, and we're going to actually just communicate
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  Speaker 2: what actually happened.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, So this is objectively something that you can look up.
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  Speaker 3: So this is not like a spin on this. Okay.
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  Speaker 3: Under Obama, the twenty fifteen deal, known as the Joint
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  Speaker 3: Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA, was developed through years
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  Speaker 3: of negotiating between Iran, the US, and five other members
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  Speaker 3: of the UN Security Council China, France, Russia, of the UK,
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  Speaker 3: and Germany. In this deal, Iran agreed to lower its
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  Speaker 3: uranium enrichment to three point sixty seven percent and reduce
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  Speaker 3: its centrifuges by two thirds over ten years. They agreed
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  Speaker 3: to reduce their nuclear stockpile by ninety eight percent, leaving
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  Speaker 3: them with less than needed to make a full weapon.
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  Speaker 3: Their heavy water reactor was redesigned so it could not
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  Speaker 3: produce weapons great plutonium, and spent fuel was to be
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  Speaker 3: shipped out of the country. The deal specifically contained the
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  Speaker 3: language quote under no circumstances will Iran ever seek, develop
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  Speaker 3: or acquire nuclear weapons end quote.
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  Speaker 1: Perfect.
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  Speaker 2: There are more things to unpack in this deal, and
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  Speaker 2: we're going to get into all of those after an
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  Speaker 2: ad for a deal with Iran. Okay, we're back. There
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  Speaker 2: are important details to remember that we've discussed in here,
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  Speaker 2: so I'm just going to really quickly state that, first
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  Speaker 2: of all, this was I think it was like seven
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  Speaker 2: years of negotiating. It took a very long time. Their
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  Speaker 2: uranian enrichment had to be low, They had to reduce
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  Speaker 2: their centrifuge capacity. They reduced their stockpile by ninety eight percent,
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  Speaker 2: so they couldn't even make a weapon if they wanted to,
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  Speaker 2: and they could not produce weapons grade plutonium. So that
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  Speaker 2: was an important part of it, and the language specifically
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  Speaker 2: said not only can you not make them, you can't
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  Speaker 2: even try and obtain them from someone else, right, and
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  Speaker 2: Iran agreed to this, They said, okay, They also agreed
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  Speaker 2: to continue. Iran specifically agreed to continue allowing for monitoring
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  Speaker 2: an inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency to monitor
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  Speaker 2: and track their nuclear facilities and supply chains to ensure
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  Speaker 2: that they stuck to the deal. So they essentially said,
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  Speaker 2: we will do this and will allow you to have
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  Speaker 2: inspectors come in regularly to make sure we're complying with this.
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  Speaker 2: And even those inspectors were allowed to access any sites
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  Speaker 2: that they suspected of potentially being used for manufacturing weapons
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  Speaker 2: grade chemicals. So like they essentially could, they had access
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  Speaker 2: to if anything even looks suspicious, we are allowed to
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  Speaker 2: go check it out and around is like, yep, we
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  Speaker 2: agree to that too.
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  Speaker 3: Sure. Now, as part of the agreement, the US agreed
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  Speaker 3: to lift some sanctions and billions of dollars in frozen
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  Speaker 3: oil revenue and other assets only after Iran demonstrated compliance
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  Speaker 3: with the deal. No money was given up front. The
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  Speaker 3: frozen assets totaled about fifty billion dollars. The US had
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  Speaker 3: also had a previous exchange in which Iran had purchased
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  Speaker 3: one point seven billion dollars in weapons from the US,
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  Speaker 3: which they never so the US paid them back that money.
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  Speaker 3: To keep that number of mind, it will be important.
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  Speaker 3: So in total, Obama freed up one hundred and seventeen
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  Speaker 3: billion dollars, none of which belonged to the US as
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  Speaker 3: far as we can tell.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, So that was like their assets were that the
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  Speaker 2: US had frozen. There was a cap on what they
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  Speaker 2: could charge for oil that was really really low, so
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  Speaker 2: it was like sort of throttling their potential economy. And
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  Speaker 2: they in like seventies or something had purchased almost two
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  Speaker 2: billion dollars of weapons, which we never gave them, And
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  Speaker 2: so we just had this one point seven billion dollars
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  Speaker 2: that never was finalized as part of that transaction because
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  Speaker 2: they never got the thing they purchased. So we just
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  Speaker 2: gave that money back to them again as part of
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  Speaker 2: the deal. We'll give you this money that we owe
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  Speaker 2: you back and we will unfreeze some of these assets.
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  Speaker 1: Okay.
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  Speaker 2: The deal did not contain language about Iran supporting other
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  Speaker 2: militant groups such as Hamas or Husbila or from developing
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  Speaker 2: ballistic missiles like that was not included as part of this. Also,
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  Speaker 2: not in the agreement was anything having to do with the
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  Speaker 2: straight of Horror moves. So Iran really didn't control the
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  Speaker 2: strait of Horn moves and they had not ever tried
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  Speaker 2: to use it as leverage up to that point.
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  Speaker 3: In addition, the deal, done in good faith and with
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  Speaker 3: agreements on all sides, was set to establish a more
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  Speaker 3: peaceful relationship with Iran and other countries and helped build
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  Speaker 3: a more cooperative relationship.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, it was like things have been really
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  Speaker 2: rough for like a while after the big revolution there,
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  Speaker 2: and like the Conservatives had essentially taken over their government
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  Speaker 2: and things were very intense, and obviously there was concern
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  Speaker 2: about them stockpiling major weapons, and so to pressure them,
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  Speaker 2: the US had imposed all kinds of sanctions and all
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  Speaker 2: kinds of restrictions and frozen assets where possible, and so
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  Speaker 2: basically saying we'll give you back this stuff that we've
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  Speaker 2: taken away as long as you agree that you're not
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  Speaker 2: going to build weapons. It was kind of how that went.
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  Speaker 2: Now Trump, you Andi latterly destroyed this deal in twenty eighteen,
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  Speaker 2: did not consult with those other nations of the Security
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  Speaker 2: Council did not think at all about doing this. Just
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  Speaker 2: ended the deal in twenty eighteen. So the deal had
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  Speaker 2: only been in effect for three years. But it was working.
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  Speaker 2: Everything they had been agreeing to, everything, Everything was flowing
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  Speaker 2: exactly the way that was supposed to. Our relationship with
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  Speaker 2: Iran was starting to heal. Then, on February twenty eighth,
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  Speaker 2: twenty twenty six, for some reason, Trump conducted airstrikes on Iran,
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  Speaker 2: seemingly out of the blue. Trump argued that the purpose
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  Speaker 2: was to destroy Iran's navy, then at some other point
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  Speaker 2: to destroy their missile capabilities, then at some other point
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  Speaker 2: to prevent them from developing nuclear weapons, then at some
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  Speaker 2: other point to stop or prevent them from funding other
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  Speaker 2: military or extremist groups. There was a lot of like
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  Speaker 2: it's this reason, No, it's this reason, No, it's this
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  Speaker 2: reason going on in the news for a while right now.
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  Speaker 3: Marco Rubio later claimed they attacked because Israel was going
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  Speaker 3: to attack Iran and they were concerned that American soldiers
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  Speaker 3: could be attacked if so, and that they preemptively attacked
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  Speaker 3: to take out Iran's ballistic missiles. So other insiders later
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  Speaker 3: contradicted this, saying that there was no evidence that Americans
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  Speaker 3: would be attacked, and later a different reason was given
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  Speaker 3: that they attacked to initiate a regime change, and that
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  Speaker 3: they had killed forty nine top Iranian leaders. Trump did
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  Speaker 3: cite some frustration with failed attempts to reach a nuclear
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  Speaker 3: deal leading up to the war. Of course, this wouldn't
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  Speaker 3: have been an issue if our deal had still been
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  Speaker 3: in place.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, So, like they did kill a bunch of leaders,
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  Speaker 2: and after he had ended that deal, had been trying
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  Speaker 2: to negotiate a new deal ball on his own, which
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  Speaker 2: of course failed because he's terrible at negotiating and terrible
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  Speaker 2: at making deals and just like dumber than a pile
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  Speaker 2: of rocks. So nothing was getting accomplished. He was mad
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  Speaker 2: about that, and then that was potentially a.
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  Speaker 1: Reason for the bombing. We're not totally sure anyway.
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  Speaker 2: We don't really know why the war started, but we
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  Speaker 2: can starty to identify what the war has cost us. Already,
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  Speaker 2: since February twenty eight to twenty six, the Pentagon reported
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  Speaker 2: that we have so far spent twenty eight billion dollars
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  Speaker 2: on weapons that we've used to bomb I ran twenty
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  Speaker 2: eight billion, so just as a quick reminder, the number
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  Speaker 2: that had come up before that one point seven billion dollars,
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  Speaker 2: which was their money. We have now spent twenty eight
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  Speaker 2: billion dollars, which, if my math is correct, is approximately
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  Speaker 2: fourteen times more than that and is our money because
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  Speaker 2: it's our weapons, And the Pentagon is now asking for
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  Speaker 2: another eighty billion dollars, bringing it to over one hundred
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  Speaker 2: billion dollars spent on this. In addition, thirteen American service
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  Speaker 2: members have been killed during and because of the war,
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  Speaker 2: and the closing of the Straight of Hormuz has skyrocketed
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  Speaker 2: the cost of oil, which all Americans are paying for,
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  Speaker 2: to the tune of billions of dollars. So not only
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  Speaker 2: did our tax dollars pay for these bombs to accomplish
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  Speaker 2: what we don't know, it's also costing regular American citizens
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  Speaker 2: on a daily basis what they're having to pay extra
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  Speaker 2: in oil costs, and experts have estimated that the cost
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  Speaker 2: of this war could range from as low as one
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  Speaker 2: hundred and thirty two billion dollars to up to a
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  Speaker 2: trillion dollars in total. Like wad thinking like we have
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  Speaker 2: to rebuild a bunch of things, there's all we're about
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  Speaker 2: to get into some of the other reasons why as well.
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  Speaker 2: But yeah, so actually let's let's end on this note
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  Speaker 2: and come back for a part two. Just understanding that
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  Speaker 2: where we're at so far. Yeah, one thing we didn't
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  Speaker 2: really talk about before Trump had been complaining about and
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  Speaker 2: listing this like that Obama emptied out the banks and
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  Speaker 2: filled them with people's money to just give I ran
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  Speaker 2: one point seven billion dollars. That's not what happened at all.
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  Speaker 2: What had happened was the money was theirs, and we
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  Speaker 2: gave it back, and we didn't empty out any banks
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  Speaker 2: to do it, because why would you do that. But
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  Speaker 2: it also was not non contingently given. It was we
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  Speaker 2: will give you back the money that is yours, assuming
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  Speaker 2: you follow through on this. Okay, that's really important because
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  Speaker 2: the terms of the current memorandum of understanding are quite
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  Speaker 2: different than that. But let's wrap up this episode here
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  Speaker 2: and we're going to come back and we're going to
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  Speaker 2: talk now actually getting into more about the deal that
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  Speaker 2: or the memorandum of understanding that we ended up with,
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  Speaker 2: and so hopefully you remember this a week from now,
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  Speaker 2: we'll recap it and the next mante Well, I think
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  Speaker 2: that's a good place to pause, and then we'll come
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  Speaker 2: back and finish it up next week.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure. All right.
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  Speaker 2: If you like what you heard in this episode today,
• 13:18
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• 13:57
  Speaker 2: to say thank you to my team of people who
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  Speaker 1: Shane, Hey, thanks for having me.
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  Speaker 2: We're good to wrap this one up and then we
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  Speaker 2: can we can come back next week.
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  Speaker 1: For part two.
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  Speaker 3: Sounds like a deal, all right.
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: Thank you all for listening. This is Abraham and this
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: is Shane. Why We Do What We Do Mini is out.
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: Bye.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: You've been listening to Why We Do What We Do.
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• 14:21
  Speaker 3: going to WWDWWD podcast dot com. Thanks for listening, and
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: we hope you have an awesome day