Trump's "maximum pressure" campaign proved a catastrophic failure, but the Iran hawks are unrepentant. Now they want to dictate Biden's personnel choices, labeling those who support diplomacy as dangerous.

The hawks have been wrong, over and over. Why listen to them now?
The hawks' theory was if we pulled out of the nuclear deal and went back to sanctions and tough talk, Iran would come to the table on not just nukes, but missiles, human rights, terrorism, etc.

Trump tested the theory. Gave it 4 solid years. It didn't work. At all.
No other nation joined our new sanctions. Instead, all our JCPOA partners developed work-arounds to keep the Iranian economy alive.

And Iran restarted the shuttered parts of their nuclear program and began shooting at U.S. soldiers in Iraq again.

Unmitigated disaster.
Now the hawks - who opposed the Iran deal and pressed Trump into a losing strategy - want to tell Biden he can't hire people to work on the Iran brief who support diplomacy.

That's nuts.

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More from @ChrisMurphyCT

18 Jan
The internal security threat the U.S. faces right now is serious. We need a Secretary of Defense on the job immediately. I will vote to confirm Lloyd Austin and grant him a waiver, and I urge other Senators to do the same.
In 2017 I voted against granting a waiver for Jim Mattis. My constituents should rightfully ask, what’s different now?

First, the immediacy of the threat to our country requires DoD to have leadership in place without delay. But that’s not the only thing that’s changed.
A general at DoD was especially worrying under Trump. Trump had zero foreign policy experience, a penchant to glorify violence, a total neophyte Secretary of State, and an unstable, war mongering former general as NSA.
Read 6 tweets
12 Jan
A little noticed decision by Mike Pompeo Sunday may result in tens of thousands dying of starvation and also a massive oil spill 4 times bigger than the Valdez.

1/ A THREAD of the mind blowing insanity of Pompeo's decision to name Yemen's Houthis as a terrorist group.
2/ A civil war has been raging in Yemen since 2014. Saudi Arabia and the U.S. are on one side. The rebel Houthi tribe and Iran on the other. It has caused a humanitarian crisis - the worst in the world. 100,000 children have died of starvation or disease. 16m are malnourished.
3/ The Houthis are bad guys. They target civilians. They steal food aid. But they aren't what we would traditionally consider a "terrorist group". They are using barbaric tactics in the conduct of war. But so are the Saudis. They intentionally target civilians too.
Read 10 tweets
14 Dec 20
So a holiday tip for Hartford area families. There’s a new light display on the South Green in Hartford (intersection of Main, Wethersfield and Maple Aves).

It’s pretty magical. Read Anne’s post below. She asks how it happened, so here’s the quick story.
In 2020, smiles have been harder to find. I spend my days working to get more testing and UI and food assistance to CT. Yes, economic security brings smiles.

But for kids especially, so do the whimsical silly things. And there aren’t many of those to be found this year.
There’s this big, beautiful, historic green a block from our new house in Hartford and next to Hartford Hospital. Tons of passing traffic, big gorgeous trees. And I knew what it needed - Christmas lights. Millions of them.
Read 5 tweets
7 Dec 20
1/ Please read this THREAD - the wild story of the reclusive Blue brothers, who are about to make $3 BILLION from the UAE arms sales.

I wrote about them in my book, The Violence Inside Us. An example of how profits, not U.S. security interests, often dictate U.S. arms policy.
2/ As Yale students, the Blue brothers made the cover of Life Magazine, recounting the story of a daredevil adventure flying a small plane from New Haven to Columbia, and along the way befriended the brutal Somoza regime in Nicaragua.
3/ After college, Linden and Neal went into business with the dictator, running their plantations. Then they took over a small uranium company, General Atomics (GA), and got into trouble by keeping a processing facility open that was contaminating the local water.
Read 11 tweets
2 Dec 20
I have introduced a privileged resolution (meaning it must receive a floor vote) with @SenatorMenendez and @RandPaul to stop a massive, $23 billion sale of F-35s, Reaper drones, and munitions to the UAE.

This is really important, and I want you to understand why.

1/ A THREAD:
2/ First, a stipulation - the UAE has been a strong ally of the United States. They partner in fighting ISIS and countering malign Iranian influence, and they've been a key player in the détente between Gulf states and Israel, culminating in this fall's recognition accords.
3/ The UAE's recognition of Israel is a big deal. I fully support the Abraham Accords. But there was no invisible ink in that deal that obligated the United States to compromise our own security by selling wildly lethal weapons in the Middle East.
Read 9 tweets
24 Nov 20
THREAD: Yes @ABlinken and Biden’s national security team have loads of experience, but they are open to new ideas.

That’s key, bc U.S. foreign policy has become dangerously sclerotic, and progressives have offered several productive critiques of the national security consensus.
1/ For instance, it’s time for America to finally shake our hubris of what can be accomplished by military deployments in far off places. Restraint IS a policy. Often our intervention (think Iraq or Libya or Syria) ends up doing much more harm than good.
2/ Secret wars, exempt from public view or oversight, too often go off the rails. For example, our drone program more often kills the wrong target, adding fuel to extremist groups recruitment drives.
Read 11 tweets

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