Trump, The Simplistic Reductionist

Sunlit7 op

 Just about everyone has been misled by now on how Hamas funded the attack on Israel. They've been misled to believe that the Biden administration gave Iran six billion dollars to free hostages. This isn't an post sticking up for the Biden administration or some advocacy for Iran or Hamas. This particular post will focus on some of the most common sense words written on the debate thus far. Those words, spoke by Ali Vaez, the International Crisis Group's Iran project director, are:

Vaez said that it was a mistake to reduce the conflict between Israel and Palestine to the amount of money Iran has in its bank account.

"This idea that what Iran does in terms of its regional policies is only and only a function of money is the most simplistic and reductionist analysis," Vaez told Newsweek. "It just just does not align with more than 40 years of Iran's track record in the region." 

When I think about "simplistic reductionist" my mind don't have to wonder to far. After all I'd spent five years of my life being an avid supporter of someone who drove me nuts with the way he talked to people. Very simplistic like people were stupid. I figured though he was advocating for what people had been waiting decades for, a leader who'd stand up for the right of the working class in this country, if he was driving me crazy with the way he talked than he was driving his opponents even crazier, but at least he appeared to be getting the message across. Americans wanted change. Well the simpleton made a missed duction in his calculations this time.

In the morning hours of Oct 7, 2023 Trump had this to say about the attack on Israel.

The former president blamed the attack on "American taxpayer dollars" in a statement Saturday morning on Truth Social, his social media platform. He wrote, "These Hamas attacks are a disgrace and Israel has every right to defend itself with overwhelming force. Sadly, American taxpayer dollars helped fund these attacks, which many reports are saying came from the Biden Administration. We brought so much peace to the Middle East through the Abraham Accords, only to see Biden whittle it away at a far more rapid pace than anyone thought possible. Here we go again."

What Trump was referring to wasn't the six billion dollars that has never been released. He was referring to 235 million in aid given to the Palestinians in 2021 by the Biden administration.

The Biden administration in 2021 reinstated assistance to the Palestinians, at the time providing them $235 million. Critics, however, warned that resuming the aid could bolster Hamas' operations, a sentiment echoed by Trump. President Joe Biden has also faced backlash over a deal with Iran, which saw the release of U.S. hostages in exchange for the transfer of $6 billion in frozen Iranian funds from South Korea to Qatar.

The next day though when Trump allies went further by pushing the notion it was the six billion transferred to Qatar that funded the attack, Iran had one of those silly rabbits responses to give back.

Iran said on Sunday it received $43 million in damages from the United States.

The Center for International Legal Affairs of the Legal Vice Presidency of the Iranian President released a statement on Sunday saying that $43 million was deposited into Tehran's bank account in The Hague, the Netherlands, in connection to a legal case dealing with properties that were not transferred to Iran following the conclusion of the Algiers Declaration, according to a report from the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA). Newsweek could not independently verify Iran's claim.

"Following repeated and persistent follow-ups by the Center for International Legal Affairs of the Legal Vice Presidency of the Iranian President to secure Iran's rights based on the verdict, the amount of $43 million has been deposited by the US government into the account of the Islamic Republic of Iran at a Dutch bank in The Hague in damages and its interest," the statement reads.

The case centers around Iran accusing the U.S. of violating its obligations under the Algiers Declaration to arrange for transfer of Iranian properties—including artworks, archeological objects, fossils and equipment—to the Middle Eastern country. 

So Iran gave them a "what you talkin' about Willis" explanations. As in I just got forty three million dollars cash deposited into our account, I didn't have anything to do with money given to the Palestinians and I certainly had enough money on hand if I had wanted to use it to fund a Hamas attack not to be concerned about fungibility of frozen funds.

It's really not here nor there where the funds came from because military experts have calculated that what was spent on the attack would have came in, from what they'd seen of the process involved, around one hundred thousand dollars. Which by Hamas standards would be piggy bank money and Iranian standards pocket change.

Why the big rush to Truth Social and X by Trump and his henchmen, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert and Kari Lake to deflect the blame off onto the current administration. It's two fold. One was to start the confusion of where the six billion came from. That was from sanctions placed on Iranian oil during the Trump administration. The sanctions allowed S. Korea a phase out period of using Iranian oil. Since S. Korea couldn't give the money to Iran for the purchase of oil the money sat in a S. Korean bank. Trump allowed for that money to be used for humanitarian reasons but the restrictions were so stringent they worried if they made a mistake it'd land them in trouble. The money wasn't released to Qatar from S. Korea, S. Korea after receiving complaints it wouldn't release the money for humanitarian purposes transferred the money to a bank in Switzerland, where it also sat due to not wanting to deal with the restrictions placed on it. After the release in humanitarian purposes for hostage exchange was negotiated the money was transferred to Qatar. Where it still sits.

"Iran has, unfortunately, always used and focused its funds on supporting terrorism, on supporting groups like Hamas, and it's done that when there have been sanctions, it's done that there haven't been sanctions," he said. These funds have always been, under the law, available to Iran to use for humanitarian purposes. The Trump administration set up a very similar mechanism to enable Iran to use these kinds of assets for humanitarian purposes. 

The second one is the big lie told in Trump's simplistic description of events:

On Monday, the former president, who is also the frontrunner in the 2024 GOP presidential primary, followed up on his previous statement with another post to Truth Social, calling out Biden and claiming that "Iran is rapidly building a large scale arsenal of nuclear weapons and once they have them, which will be soon, all negotiations stop."

"Would somebody please inform our worst president in history, crooked Joe Biden, who doesn't have a clue, that while he dithers around and illegally attacks his political opponent, me, and is always trying to blame everyone else for the many, many, many mistakes he has made, Iran is rapidly building a large scale arsenal of nuclear weapons. Once they have them, which will be soon, all negotiations stop," Trump wrote.

He continued: "That's when our incompetent fool of a president will drop to his knees and beg Iran for mercy. 'Please, please, please, Mr. Ayatollah, sir, I will give you everything, I will do anything you demand. Don't hurt us!' This is the position that this stupid fool has put us in. Three years ago, under 'Trump,' Iran was broke—no nuclear weapons, or prospects. Biden has made them rich, and has no idea what to do. They started the attack on Israel and desperately want to become openly involved. 'Death to Israel,' they chant. Don't let Iran have nuclear weapons!"

In his Truth Social post on Friday, Trump accused the Biden administration of being responsible for Israel's "unprecedented death and destruction," arguing that the region had been at peace due to his own administration's role in brokering the Abraham Accords.

The Abraham Accords, agreements intended to normalize Israeli-Arab relations, were signed between Israel, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates in September 2020. Israel signed additional agreements with Morocco and Sudan during the final months of the Trump administration.

However, the agreements have faced criticism for failing to ease Israeli-Palestinian tensions prior to the current conflict.

So what's the big lie in all that? "Three years ago, under 'Trump,' Iran was broke—no nuclear weapons, or prospects. Biden has made them rich, and has no idea what to do."

Was Iran really broke? Not even a prospect in sight? Hardly. It doesn't take a math genius to figure out that six billion dollars, that was accumulated as a result of Trump placed sanctions, is a whole lot more than what Biden gave to the Palestinians in aid and a heck of a lot more than the forty three millions Iran claims it got deposited through a tribunal judgement. So ask yourselves who, this time around, gave Iran the biggest prospects they've seen in quite awhile. Biden didn't even give any money to Iran as claimed in recent days. The money is still sitting in a bank. Nor was Biden responsible for a judgement made against the United States. So, again, who gave Iran the biggest prospects they've seen in awhile? Trump.

Here's another thing that people fail to be seeing, probably the largest piece of evidence of the failure not success of the claimed peace loving middle east Abraham Accords: "However, the agreements have faced criticism for failing to ease Israeli-Palestinian tensions prior to the current conflict." Without that there simply can't be any claimed peace in the middle east. I'd even be willing to make the claim that Palestinians aside there'd still be no peace in the middle east. Just because he got three, four countries to sign onto something there still wasn't any peace in the middle east before, during or after he left office. Biden isn't the only one he thinks is stupid, he thinks we are all as stupid as Biden. For there to be peace in the middle east we'd have to see the complete genocide on certain groups of individuals like witnessed in Ukraine. Ukraine, Gaza, who's next? How far does it go?, who is next from a man who claims people told him he could stand in Time Square and shoot someone and not lose supporters? A man when asked why Bush or Obama didn't get tough on China replied: "They don't have the capacity to do it. Maybe they are not smart enough. Maybe they are not tough enough. Maybe they don't have the right ingredient to do it." It certainly begs, after the most brutal among us, who is next. What was the objective behind that six billion dollars, to bribe Iran or help fund taking out Iran. Some of us are not as stupid as he thinks.

Links to the information in the post can be seen at it's original posting here:

https://hive.blog/deepdives/@sunlit7/trump-the-simplistic-reductionist