Funny Trump invites Taliban to US

[MARIS61]

I was firmly against registering for the draft so on my 18th birthday I went to 3 different post offices and registered under the draft using three variations of my name.

Sly Poker Dog
Sly P. Dog
S. Poker Dog

I knew it wouldn't get me out of the draft but I thought it would either confuse some paperwork pusher or I would be drafted 3 times.

Possibly by 3 different branches of the military.
My haiku for you:

By land, air or sea
our enemies fear the wrath
of SlyPokerDog

 

[MARIS61]

Yet you voted for him

Yes, you're correct that I voted for Clinton, the first time.

 

[MARIS61]

I am Vietnam generation. There were those who supported the war and served. I don't agree with them but they did what they thought was right. There were those who opposed the war but when called served because they thought it was their duty or simply didn't have much choice; it's not like turning down a civilian job offer. Serve, leave country, go to prison. I understand those who figured a 2-year stint and then done was their best option. And there were those who opposed the war and did not serve. They also did what they thought was right. The ones for whom I have zero respect are those who were so gung-ho supporting the war but refused to serve, like Cheney & Trump.

Meanwhile, back to topic, Maris once again shows he does not know history. There is no comparison between Taliban and Arafat. The United Nations had designated the Palestine Liberation Organization as the official representative of Palestinian people and Arafat was PLO chairman, so regardless of what you think of Arafat and/or PLO, any peace negotiation between Palestine and Israel had to include his input or it wouldn't happen. Taliban has no such status. And despite PLO status there was significant protest among some Israelis as well as in the US and Europe over including Arafat. So once again Maris is wrong twice over.

Those who opposed the war yet served anyway are simply spineless cowards with no moral compass at all. To give them a free pass is to support war.

If you feel it's murder but you willingly do it for 2 years to avoid a 4 year prison sentence, you're not much of a human being. You're actually the only reason we can still have wars.

Trump has never been pro-war.

As for all your nonsense about how highly his Deep State cohorts in the UN and US praised Arafat, he was in fact the most cowardly, mass murderer POS in the world back in his day:

Arafat the Monster
Jeff Jacoby reported on November 11, 2004:

YASSER ARAFAT died at age 75, lying in bed surrounded by familiar faces. He left this world peacefully, unlike the thousands of victims he sent to early graves.
In a better world, the PLO chief would have met his end on a gallows, hanged for mass murder much as the Nazi chiefs were hanged at Nuremberg. In a better world, the French president would not have paid a visit to the bedside of such a monster. In a better world, George Bush would not have said, on hearing the first reports that Arafat had died, "God bless his soul."
God bless his soul? What a grotesque idea! Bless the soul of the man who brought modern terrorism to the world? Who sent his agents to slaughter athletes at the Olympics, blow airliners out of the sky, bomb schools and pizzerias, machine-gun passengers in airline terminals? Who lied, cheated, and stole without compunction? Who inculcated the vilest culture of Jew-hatred since the Third Reich? Human beings might stoop to bless a creature so evil -- as indeed Arafat was blessed, with money, deference, even a Nobel Prize -- but God, I am quite sure, will damn him for eternity. ("Arafat the Monster," Boston Globe, Jeff Jacoby, November 11, 2004)

Arafat: Father of modern-day terrorism

The Israel National News reported on October 28, 2004:

Yasser Arafat, who reportedly is now breathing his last, is considered the father of modern terrorism. He is directly responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent Israeli citizens, the deaths of untold numbers of Arabs and the killing of more than 100 U.S. citizens. Among the Americans were two diplomats, whose cruel murders in Sudan Arafat ordered by radio from his Beirut headquarters.
In 1995, Ariel Sharon said, "I don't know anyone other than Arafat who has as much civilian Jewish blood on his hands since the time of the Nazis."
Arafat's official biography on the Nobel Prize website glosses over his terrorist past, writing only,
"In 1958 he and his friends founded Al-Fatah, an underground network of secret cells, which in 1959 began to publish a magazine advocating armed struggle against Israel. At the end of 1964 Arafat left Kuwait to become a full-time revolutionary, organising Fatah raids into Israel from Jordan. It was also in 1964 that the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) was established, under the sponsorship of the Arab League, bringing together a number of groups all working to free Palestine for the Palestinians. The Arab states favoured a more conciliatory policy than Fatah's... Arafat developed the PLO into a state within the state of Jordan with its own military forces. King Hussein of Jordan, disturbed by its guerrilla attacks on Israel and other violent methods, eventually expelled the PLO from his country. Arafat sought to build a similar organisation in Lebanon, but this time was driven out by an Israeli military invasion. He kept the organization alive, however, by moving its headquarters to Tunis..."
In fact, however, this long period was one of blood and murder orchestrated by Arafat. The PLO under his leadership conducted plane hijackings, bombings, and other acts of violence against Israel. In fact, the beginning of terror sky-jackings has been attributed to Arafat and the Fatah. Two years ago, after an Israeli plane was almost shot down in Kenya, then-Foreign Minister Binyamin Netanyahu warned, "Sky-jacking terrorism first began against Israeli targets abroad by Arafat and Fatah in the late 1960's, and it very quickly became an international plague. We face exactly the same situation now. The terrorism of firing missiles against civilian airlines is now beginning against Israeli planes, but it can easily spread to other areas..." Arutz-7 reported at the time that though there had been "transportation" skyjackings in which criminals wished to reach Cuba, the first terrorist-extortion hijacking of an airliner apparently occurred when Palestinians hijacked an El Al airliner to Algiers in July 1968. Two years later, Palestinian terrorists hijacked four jets almost simultaneously; the passengers were released after three weeks, and the planes were blown up.
The PLO under Arafat was also responsible for the massacre of 26 people, mostly children, in the Netiv Meir school in Maalot in May 1974. Another PLO organization perpetrated the Munich Olympics slaughter, killing eleven Israeli athletes in 1972. ("Arafat: Father of Modern-Day Terrorism", October 28, 2004)

According to J.R. Nyquist,

In 1970 the Kremlin became interested in an obscure Arab construction engineer and collector of racecars, named Rahman al-Qudwa. Evidence shows, contrary to later claims, that this "construction engineer" was an Egyptian, born in Cairo during the summer of 1929. Rahman graduated from the University of Cairo and served as an officer in the Egyptian Army during the 1956 Suez campaign. Later he set up a business in Kuwait and made a fortune. He then entered politics, founding a hopelessly small terrorist organization.
But this terrorist organization would not remain hopelessly small forever.
According to the former head of Romanian intelligence, Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa, one of the highest ranking communist defectors of all time, Rahman al-Qudwa became an important political ally of the communist bloc following the death of Egypt's president, Gamal Abdul Nasser, in 1970. Gen. Pacepa's account of Rahman's intimate relations with the communist bloc is related in a book entitled "Red Horizons." As it happens, Pacepa tells us that the communists trusted Rahman because he was a voracious homosexual. This alone made him a workable Kremlin puppet, because once the Romanian intelligence services had taped Rahman's sex sessions with men and boys, he was completely in their hands. Afterwards, Rahman's friendship for the communist bloc would be permanent -- if he valued his growing popularity in the Arab world.
Rahman al-Qudwa is better known as Yasser Arafat, the chairman of the PLO since 1968 and the president of the Palestinian Authority -- which is now at war with Israel. According to Gen. Pacepa's account, communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu ordered his people to bring Arafat over to Romania. In late 1970 the chief of Romanian intelligence in Egypt, Gen. Constantine Munteanu, arrived in Bucharest with Arafat in tow. Munteanu had gathered an extensive file on Arafat, which characterized the PLO leader as "so much cleverness, blood, and filth all together in one man." Pacepa says that this was Munteanu's "standard definition of Arafat."
Given Gen. Munteanu's extensive file, Arafat could not exactly refuse the communist's "friendly" overtures. There is little question that Arafat is fanatically devoted to destroying Israel, and would sell his soul to the devil to gain his devilish ends. Therefore, a compact between Arafat and the Soviet Union via communist Romania was not something that violated any sacred Islamic rule in Arafat's heart. Arafat is no Moslem. His fanaticism is completely secular. But since he operates within the Islamic world, he must sometimes appear as a would-be Muslim liberator. (“Kremlin puppets and how they work,” J.R. Nyquist, October 19, 2000)

Nyquist also writes:

What should be remembered, what we always seem to forget, is that Russia was the leading sponsor of international terrorism during the Cold War. Russia trained some of the world’s most notorious terrorists -- from Carlos “the Jackal” to Yasser Arafat. This week we owe a debt of gratitude to former Romanian intelligence chief Ion Mihai Pacepa for his Monday column in The Wall Street Journal Online which clarifies Arafat’s Russian connections. As Romania’s former spy chief, Pacepa has read Arafat’s KGB file. He says that Arafat was a KGB agent. According to Pacepa, Arafat “is a career terrorist, trained, armed and bankrolled by the Soviet Union and its satellites for decades.”
In his Wall Street Journal column, Pacepa describes Moscow’s plan to make Arafat the national leader of the Palestinians. And this is what Arafat has become, even as he directs the greatest terror offensive of them all -- against Israel. Pacepa describes Arafat as “an Egyptian bourgeois turned into a devoted Marxist by KGB foreign intelligence.” Arafat was trained at the Balashikha special-ops school in Russia. Pacepa also relates how “the KGB destroyed the official records of Arafat’s birth in Cairo, replacing them with fictitious documents saying that he had been born in Jerusalem and was therefore a Palestinian by birth.” ("Kremlin Terrorists", J. R. Nyquist, September 24, 2003)

Arafat has been stirring the Mideast pot to a boil for years, fomenting anti-Jewish hatred at every opportunity. Charles Krauthammer, in an article in The Weekly Standard, writes:

People are not born with bloodlust. They learn it. It is no mystery where the Palestinians have learned it. For years Arafat's mini-police-state has been feeding his people the rawest Jew-hatred since the Third Reich. ("The fallacy of moral equivalence," Charles Krauthammer, The Weekly Standard, 28 May 2001)

The characteristic marks of “out of Egypt” and “insanity of sin” fit Arafat perfectly.

Intent on war
Since Arafat accepted the Tenet document, "we have suffered 230 terrorist attacks, four Israeli citizens have been killed and another 10 wounded. Israel is showing restraint, but people cannot accept it," Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said in an exclusive interview with Contributing Editor Lally Weymouth in the July 2 issue of Newsweek.
On June 25th, during a U.S. trip to discuss the Middle East conflict, Sharon asserted that Palestinian President Yasser Arafat was ''the head of a terrorist gang'' and a U.S.-brokered cease-fire was not working. ''There is no cease-fire. We have casualties every day,'' Sharon said in a speech to the America-Israel Friendship League.
Sharon's predecessor, Ehud Barak, experienced the same duplicitous cycle: Arafat's promises of peace, but actions and words that were always directed towards war. In a statement on October 25, 2000 before Congress, Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., blamed Arafat for the stall in peace talks: ``Arafat's latest contribution to this dialogue was to tell the prime minister of Israel to 'go to hell.' It's difficult to be an honest broker under those circumstances."
In a statement to the press, New York Congressman Benjamin Gilman said the underlying cause of the situation in the Middle East is that Arafat "is attempting to dictate Israeli concessions at the negotiating table through the unbridled use of violence."

In an "Open Letter to Arafat," Joseph Farah exposes Arafat’s hatred and hypocrisy that has fomented so much bloodshed:

Let me be blunt: Despite extensive travels throughout the Middle East, I have not met a single Christian Arab who did not have misgivings about you [Arafat]. I certainly have never met one who considered you a representative of his interests in the Holy Land. In the United States I have never met a Christian who thought you were anything but an anti-Jewish terrorist. That's the way I think of you.
You may indeed actually represent many of those rioting in the streets of Ramallah and Gaza and Jerusalem, but you will never speak for Christians anywhere -- not real Christians, not followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, who was, you might recall, a Jewish rabbi.
By definition, Christians must reject your agenda of hate and genocide. (Exclusive: Joseph Farah writes open letter to Palestinian leader, October 24, 2000)

The media has also picked up on the apparent fact that Arafat is not interested in peace, but on political advantage:

The defense establishment is becoming increasingly convinced that Yasser Arafat does not intend to return to the Oslo process. This leaves him with two choices: The first, and the one he apparently prefers at the minute, is controlled violence that will lead in the end to new diplomatic initiatives, but with increased international involvement. The second, which Arafat has not ruled out, is a full-scale regional war. (“IDF fears Arafat is pushing for war,” by Amos Harel, October 20, 2000) (See Special Dispatch #236) (See Special Dispatch #236)

Arafat rejected former Israeli Prime Minister Barak's gestures for peace, saying that Barak could "go to hell":

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat angrily rejected Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak's declaration of a time out from the peace process on Sunday, telling reporters that Barak could "go to hell". "My response is that our people are continuing on the road to Jerusalem, capital of the independent Palestinian state, whether (Barak) accepts or does not accept, let him go to hell." (Arafat on Barak's time out: "Let him go to hell," October 23, 2000)

He is also seeking cooperation of the Arab world to unite against Israel:

Speaking to the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in Doha, Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat vowed yesterday that the Al-Aqsa Intifada will continue. "Despite the heavy human losses which exceed more than 200 martyrs and over 9,000 wounded, our people are determined, more than at any other time, to continue their holy struggle in the Al-Aqsa Intifada with the help of our brothers and friends," Arafat told the 56-member OIC. (Arafat to conference: Intifada will go on, Ha'aretz, November 13, 2000)

Palestinian children trained at military camps
This volatile situation is by no means spontaneous, but has been deliberately fomented by a hatred-inciting Palestinian media, Palestinian soldiers armed with Russian-made AK-47 rifles, and thousands of Palestinian youths trained in guerilla tactics. The Palestinian Authority has ordered children out of school and buses them to confront Israeli soldiers with rocks and Molotov cocktails. If that doesn't draw enough victims, Palestinian soldiers fire their automatic weapons on Israelis from within crowds of children, forcing the Israeli troops to shoot back.

Stone-throwing children at the centre of riots on the West Bank and Gaza have received weeks of training in guerrilla warfare, including mock kidnappings, from Yassir Arafat’s Fatah movement.… Over the past four weeks at least 120 Palestinians have been killed by Israelis. About a third of them were boys as young as 12, some among the 25,000 youngsters trained in 90 different Fatah camps earlier this year.… Israel has repeatedly accused the Palestinian leadership of the “cynical use of children in the front line” for propaganda purposes and has insisted that they often pose a mortal threat to Israeli soldiers. The revelations that thousands of children were given guerrilla training in the months before the explosion of the “al-Aqsa intifada” reinforces this argument…. Asked why they were spending their days darting around the concrete maze of Qalandiya Camp firing catapults and throwing stones at soldiers armed with automatic weapons and rubber bullets, some of the youngsters just shrugged and said: “It’s fun”. (Arafat school teaches kids warfare: stone-throwing boys trained how to direct hate toward Israelis, October 25, 2000, London Times)

Arafat is forming tactical alliances that make it obvious that he is preparing for an all-out war with Israel:

As Prime Minister Ehud Barak works to broaden his governing Israeli coalition by negotiating with his political adversaries, the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, is also seeking new partners and making at least a new tactical alliance with the political enemies he once ordered jailed…. Many of those activists with Hamas and Islamic Jihad had been imprisoned for months, and others intermittently for years - but dozens were allowed out of their cells within the last few weeks to help coordinate the current campaign they call ''resistance'' against Israeli military occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. (“Arafat Making Tactical Alliance With Islamic Jihad and Hamas,” International Herald Tribune, October 25, 2000)

All of this is consistent with past statements concerning the fundamental objective of the PLO, Arafat's organization:

"There has been no change whatsoever in the fundamental strategy of the PLO, which is based on the total liberation of Palestine and the destruction of the occupying country. ... On no accounts will the Palestinians accept part of Palestine and call it the Palestinian state, while forfeiting the remaining areas which are called the State of Israel." (Rafiq Najshah, PLO representative in Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabian News Agency, June 9, 1980)

Arafat: "a murderer and a pathological liar"
Ariel Sharon, the current leader of Israel, recognizes Arafat for what he truly is, calling him "a murderer and a pathological liar." ("Sharon blasts Arafat as murderer, pathological liar," Ha'aretz, June 6, 2001). Arafat has never been interested in peace, though many people have been gullible enough to believe him. As recognized by Joseph Farah of WorldNetDaily, "This round of violence began when Arafat unilaterally walked away from a peace table at which he had been handed everything he had ever asked for." ("Why Israel must act," June 6, 2001)
Also, Haim Shur has called Arafat "an arch-liar, an arch-murderer." In a June 22, 2001 interview he said,"There is one thing that no one will ever be able to take away from me, and that is my [commitment to the] truth. It enrages me when I see my friends from the [Labor] party, including the young generation, going to Gaza to greet Yasser Arafat. After all, he is an arch-liar, an arch-murderer.” (See Special Dispatch #235)
"Would anyone in the world debate with bin Laden or [Libyan President Muammar] Gaddafi? Everyone has their bin Laden. Arafat is our bin Laden," Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said on July 3rd, 2001, at a meeting of the Likud party.

In Arafat's own words:

"We will enter Jerusalem victoriously and raise our flag on its walls. ... We will fight you (the Israelis) with stones, rifles, and 'El-Abed' (the Iraqi missile)..."
--Yasser Arafat, reported by the Associated Press, March 29, 1990, at the start of the Gulf War

"In the name of Allah, we shall cause fire to devour half of Israel...."
--Yasser Arafat, Iraqi News Agency, April 2, 1990

"We say to the brother and leader Saddam Hussein -- go forward with God's blessing."
--Yasser Arafat, the next day, Iraqi News Agency, April 3, 1990

"Find whatever strength you have to terrorize your enemy." -- Yasser Arafat, in a speech to Palestinians May 16, 2004

"Whoever thinks of stopping the uprising before it achieves its goals, I will give him 10 bullets in the chest."--Yasser Arafat, speaking of the first intifada in 1989

"Palestine is the cement that holds the Arab world together, or it is the explosive that blows it apart." --Yasser Arafat, in a Time magazine interview, November 1974

 

[calvin natt]

Lol at Maris calling people who went to war, risking their lives and leaving everything and everyone they know, cowards, while he sat at home watching on TV.

 

[riverman]

Those who opposed the war yet served anyway are simply spineless cowards with no moral compass at all

how cowardly of you

 

[TorturedBlazerFan]

Those who were opposed to the war but took up arms for their country and put their lives in danger are now cowards... Man, basketball season needs to hurry up and start...

 

[TorturedBlazerFan]

For whatever its worth I wasnt around but historically wasnt a fan of the Vietnam war, @riverman @Lanny @UncleCliffy'sDaddy and the others in here who served I respect and thank you for your part in fighting for your country. I had uncles in Vietnam and the stories are horrendous I wouldnt dream of calling some one a coward who has lived through that and continues to march forward with their lives.

 

[Lanny]

I registered for the draft as required by the law at the time, was classified 1A, fully expected to have my life destroyed by a prison sentence, but quite fortunately I was not selected in the draft.

Basically, from the age of ten until I was 20 I faced a future offering only 3 choices:

Be a willing accomplice in what I considered indiscriminate mass-murder, desert my country and never be allowed to return, or go to prison and be branded as a felon and a coward for life. Conscientious objection was not allowed as a defense by atheists, and college deferrals were the very epitome of cowardice.

In my view, the only cowards are those who don't follow their conscience.

I have some very brave friends who enlisted because they believed the Viet Nam war was necessary for America's safety and survival.

I also have some friends who enlisted only out of fear they would be infantrymen if they waited to be drafted, and some who were drafted and went out of fear of prison and public condemnation.

You're wrong. I had friends and a cousin who were atheists and conscientious objectors. Most were in my unit in the Army. They all got the CO status.
As for prison, I knew of none that went to prison but knew of many who went to Canada and later got Presidential pardons. They even brought one guy to the induction center where I was drafted in handcuffs. The FBI picked him up when the ship he was a merchant marine on docked in Portland. Two FBI agents escorted him in handcuffs all through the induction process. They unlocked the handcuffs as he was standing on the steps of the bus taking us to Ft. Lewis. He was then the property of the Army. Funny thing is, it turned out he had TB and they gave him a choice, he could get treated by the Army or get a medical discharge. He chose the discharge. This was 1967 and a dangerous time to be going into the Army.

After being drafted and taking our aptitude scores they gave us a choice, we could get a discharge and re-up for a longer term all in one step in which case we could get a school and most likely avoid combat or at least get in a less dangerous job in combat or we could stick it out for two years, most likely in the infantry, and get out without learning anything other than dodging bullets and eating mud. Me? I was going to go in the MPs but the re-enlistment sergeant said I was headed for the infantry if I didn't choose an additional two (four total) years in the Army coupled with a school. I chose the two years and infantry. My test scores were literally out of sight so they sent me to electronics school for 7 months. It very possibly saved my life.

 

[CupWizier]

@MARIS61 is making a false claim. Unless he was born before 1954 (he would have been held back a couple years as he admitted he graduated in 1973, a year after me). The lottery was held for my year and the 2 years after, but the draft had already been abolished and the last class drafted was 1953. I was #20 in my year and never felt any threat of being drafted as the draft had ended but they proceeded with the lottery in case it was reestablished but the Vietnam War had already ended and troops were being pulled out. Just shows you can't believe anything maris says in this forum.

 

[Lanny]

@MARIS61 is mistaken. Unless he was born before 1954 (he would have been held back a couple years as he admitted he graduated in 1973, a year after me). The lottery was held for my year and the 2 years after, but the draft had already been abolished and the last class drafted was 1953. I was #20 in my year and never felt any threat of being drafted as the draft had ended but they proceeded with the lottery in case it was reestablished but the Vietnam War had already ended and troops were being pulled out. Just shows you can't believe anything maris says in this forum.

They didn't draft anyone still in high school.

 

[CupWizier]

They didn't draft anyone still in high school.

This was out of high school as I graduated in 72 and the lottery for men born in 1954 was done in 1973 during my freshman year in college, but it was only done that year and the following 2 years in case they voted to reinstate the draft. They never reinstated it so I was never in fear of being drafted nor should have been maris.

 

[Lanny]

This was out of high school as I graduated in 72 and the lottery for men born in 1954 was done in 1973 during my freshman year in college, but it was only done that year and the following 2 years in case they voted to reinstate the draft. They never reinstated it so I was never in fear of being drafted nor should have been maris.

I didn't mean to dispute that. I was just adding a fact that if he were still in school then he had nothing to worry about.

 

[MARIS61]

Those who were opposed to the war but took up arms for their country and put their lives in danger are now cowards... Man, basketball season needs to hurry up and start...

What country was that?

Americans never approved of invading Viet Nam, and they eventually forced the Deep State to GTFO.

 

[riverman]

Americans never approved of invading Viet Nam,

false...American arms dealers and manufacturers made a fucking fortune on that war and at the same time got rid of lots of lower class males from urban centers and rural farmlands to help the GNP along stateside. War is profitable for wealthy, entitled people who can buy deferments from the draft....guys like your current idol. The draft was completely classist in nature and your draft number reflected your family's status in society. America during that war watched John, Bobby and Martin all assasinated….the country was shooting college students in Kent State and racial tensions were pretty high...a lot of young folks in the 60s and early 70s didn't give a fuck who approved of anything...they were in upheaval both in the war and at home.....it was an ugly part of our modern history but also a very important chapter of questioning the powers that be....you want to see a deep state....go meet an arms dealer and see how patriotic he is..

 

[Lanny]

false...American arms dealers and manufacturers made a fucking fortune on that war and at the same time got rid of lots of lower class males from urban centers and rural farmlands to help the GNP along stateside. War is profitable for wealthy, entitled people who can buy deferments from the draft....guys like your current idol. The draft was completely classist in nature and your draft number reflected your family's status in society. America during that war watched John, Bobby and Martin all assasinated….the country was shooting college students in Kent State and racial tensions were pretty high...a lot of young folks in the 60s and early 70s didn't give a fuck who approved of anything...they were in upheaval both in the war and at home.....it was an ugly part of our modern history but also a very important chapter of questioning the powers that be....you want to see a deep state....go meet an arms dealer and see how patriotic he is..

I remember in college that guys from Chicago had to maintain a strong 'B' average to keep from getting drafted. That was in 1965/1966.

 

[ABM]

In other news....

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/pe...of-collapse-amid-us-maximum-pressure-campaign

Crippling sanctions imposed by the United States on Iran since President Trump’s withdrawal from the nuclear deal last year have left pension funds throughout the country on the brink of collapse, according to documents reviewed by National Security Council officials and obtained by Fox News.

U.S. officials are pointing to this as evidence of just how punishing the ongoing “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran has been.

“They have fewer resources. We can see it with the Shia militias in Iraq. They’re scrambling for resources. We think the Iranian government will shrink, that their GDP will shrink by as much as 12 or 14 percent this year,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on “Fox News Sunday,” speaking to the economic impact. “This will reduce their capacity to purchase the things they need, the equipment they need, the materials they need, to inflict terror around the world.”

The impact has been so severe that of the 18 existing retirement funds in Iran, 17 are in the red, according to these documents. That includes the pension funds for all of Iran’s armed forces.

As much as 80 percent of Iran’s retirement funds rely on government subsidies, which the documents refer to as unsustainable for not just pensions but for food products, drugs and fuel.

There are also signs of a growing crisis in Iran’s real estate market. The documents refer to the interconnected challenges as a “house of cards.” (CONTINUED)

 

[Lanny]

In other news....

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/pe...of-collapse-amid-us-maximum-pressure-campaign

Crippling sanctions imposed by the United States on Iran since President Trump’s withdrawal from the nuclear deal last year have left pension funds throughout the country on the brink of collapse, according to documents reviewed by National Security Council officials and obtained by Fox News.

U.S. officials are pointing to this as evidence of just how punishing the ongoing “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran has been.

“They have fewer resources. We can see it with the Shia militias in Iraq. They’re scrambling for resources. We think the Iranian government will shrink, that their GDP will shrink by as much as 12 or 14 percent this year,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on “Fox News Sunday,” speaking to the economic impact. “This will reduce their capacity to purchase the things they need, the equipment they need, the materials they need, to inflict terror around the world.”

The impact has been so severe that of the 18 existing retirement funds in Iran, 17 are in the red, according to these documents. That includes the pension funds for all of Iran’s armed forces.

As much as 80 percent of Iran’s retirement funds rely on government subsidies, which the documents refer to as unsustainable for not just pensions but for food products, drugs and fuel.

There are also signs of a growing crisis in Iran’s real estate market. The documents refer to the interconnected challenges as a “house of cards.” (CONTINUED)

Do you actually watch Fox News?

 

[Hoopguru]

In other news....

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/pe...of-collapse-amid-us-maximum-pressure-campaign

Crippling sanctions imposed by the United States on Iran since President Trump’s withdrawal from the nuclear deal last year have left pension funds throughout the country on the brink of collapse, according to documents reviewed by National Security Council officials and obtained by Fox News.

U.S. officials are pointing to this as evidence of just how punishing the ongoing “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran has been.

“They have fewer resources. We can see it with the Shia militias in Iraq. They’re scrambling for resources. We think the Iranian government will shrink, that their GDP will shrink by as much as 12 or 14 percent this year,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on “Fox News Sunday,” speaking to the economic impact. “This will reduce their capacity to purchase the things they need, the equipment they need, the materials they need, to inflict terror around the world.”

The impact has been so severe that of the 18 existing retirement funds in Iran, 17 are in the red, according to these documents. That includes the pension funds for all of Iran’s armed forces.

As much as 80 percent of Iran’s retirement funds rely on government subsidies, which the documents refer to as unsustainable for not just pensions but for food products, drugs and fuel.

There are also signs of a growing crisis in Iran’s real estate market. The documents refer to the interconnected challenges as a “house of cards.” (CONTINUED)

Sounds like the well run Pers retirement plan, which my wife is a recipient after 40 years of teaching. The difference is hers is guaranteed, I doubt the Mullahs would guarantee Iranians.
I do think its a matter of time Iran Radical Islamist Government is toppled by their own people.

 

[Lanny]

Sounds like the well run Pers retirement plan, which my wife is a recipient after 40 years of teaching. The difference is hers is guaranteed, I doubt the Mullahs would guarantee Iranians.
I do think its a matter of time Iran Radical Islamist Government is toppled by their own people.

I dunno, we've been saying that about Venezuela and Cuba.