RE: The Trump Presidency: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) Nov 12

Since someone skipped class in listening and reading comprehension, this is my summary/translation of what the President said at 3:35-4:00:

"As important as it is to consider the value of the lives innocent civilians caught in the crossfire of nation-state politics, this priority on pure moral intentions has been used against us in the past. Nuclear power can be a potential source of a nuclear weapon. Iran is a repressive country where womens' rights don't exist as they do here in the US, and as we know, some of our best minds in the west are women, by marginalizing this group of people the Iranians are effectively depriving themselves of a portion of their economic capital. This is to say, they make decisions and are willing to negotiate based on principles that we don't value, one of those principles being that women can be treated as second-class citizens. We cannot keep negotiating with countries with such varied cultural and ideological differences such as this, as if they had the exact same ideological outlooks and cultural values as we do."

Here, let's go through it piece-by-piece

"You look at the nuclear deal, the thing that really bothers me, it would have been so easy, and it's not -- as important as these lives are"

T: The nuclear deal as it has been structured is far more complex than it should be, there are better, more efficient means of reaching the same outcome as intended by the current standing Iran nuclear deal while surrendering less of our interests. While the value of the lives we're talking about here, the hostages, is of paramount concern to any humanist society. Still, we cannot surrender our principles for a peaceful and stable Middle East in return for hostages. It will only encourage them to take more.

"nuclear is so powerful, my uncle explained that to me many, many years ago, the power, and that was 35 years ago"

T: My uncle explained to me 35 years ago, the potential ramifications of nuclear power and how it can lead to a nuclear weapon. He was a leading mind in the development of radar and radiotherapy back in the 1940's and was privy to some of the groundbreaking military technology development of the era. (referring to back in late 1979, after Iranian revolutionaries took 52 Americans hostage at the US Embassy in Tehran, 2016 - 35 = 1981, resolution of the aforementioned crisis)

"He would explain the power of what's going to happen and he was right, who would've thought?"

T: The surrendering our priorities for a stable and peaceful Middle East, which our foreign policy position loosely defines as "not having everyone armed with nuclear weapons" in return for the return of hostages, while beautiful and noble and the right thing to do since we value human life, was used against us. They took hostages. They used these hostages as a negotiation tool. We caved. The result is an Iran with the capacity and the political will to enrich uranium far past what civilian efforts would require, and here we are, dealing with the aftermath.

"But when you look at what's going on with the four prisoners -- now it used to be three, now it's four -- but when it was three, and even now, I would've said: it's in the messenger fellas"

T: The number of hostages we're talking about isn't relevant. What's relevant is that we're dealing with a nation state which is willing to take prisoners as pawns to trade for political and diplomatic favors. It's a question of principles. If we cave now, we'll have to cave every time. They'll take more prisoners when they need something and then force us to give them what they want. This is not a sustainable model, and the fact that we're here today proves it.

"and it is fellas because, you know, they don't, they haven't figured out that the women right now are smarter right now than the men, so, you know it's going to take them about another 150 years --"

T: It's in the messenger -- that is, it's in the nature that you enter negotiation. Is the messenger saying "give me what you want or else the hostages something something" or "let's talk business", these are polar opposites, one is a power dynamic, the other a frank conversation with potential. They haven't figured out that this kind of diplomacy, one of bartering over humans is not the way to do business. It's not 1860 anymore. This is not the Barbary States. Trading in human life is over. There are some leading female politicians in Iran who're absolutely amazing -- driven but pragmatic, rational but optimistic with whom we've done work in the past and who've been reasonable. The men on the other hand, the religious leaders and chiefs of state, are being unreasonable and this cannot go on.

"But the Persians are great negotiators, the Iranians are great negotiators"

T: Despite the barbarity of trading humans for diplomatic benefit being an outdated and uncivilized way of doing business, they have managed to keep doing it with western powers and getting what they want anyway. Persia is an empire with thousands of years of history, to treat Iran like it's some upstart little nation state is a grave mistake. They are a people with history and they are not crazy, they will work with us if we make them an offer with power behind it.

"So, and they, they just killed, they just killed us"

T: With their history as a power player in the region and being one of the countries that gets to dictate regional politics and diplomacy, they absolutely tore through any of our proposals at the time (referring the 1979) and got what they wanted. They made a joke of our authority and we let them do it. The world we live in today is an outcome of those times. The Middle East being war-torn today is a direct result of our weakness, our inability to stand for our principles. We cannot afford to make the same mistake again, now that we are once again negotiating with Iran for the return of prisoners, hostages, innocent civilians who're threatened with torture and decades in prison.

Wishing you a safe and speedy return home,

Xiue Wang
Karan Vafadari
Baquer Namazi
Siamak Namazi
Reza "Robin" Shahini