Wednesday, January 13, 2016

The Iranian Hostage Cri-Success

If you were watching the State of Union Address last night, and I hope you were for the sake of your SOU assignment, then you probably noticed the tension due to the ten navy sailors that were captured by Iranian forces. They considered cancelling the entire program! It seems we've all heard this story before, right? 444 days, tons of stress, and it all ultimately ends up in a movie. Well, it seems that part two differs from the original, since Iran released all American sailors within twenty four hours after two small and armed boats experienced mechanical trouble and wound up in Iranian waters. So what does this mean?

Many democrats claim that this outcome is good news. Our sailors were free within a day, and many attribute this to the Iranian nuclear deal, where oil and financial sanctions will be removed from Iran in return for close monitoring of any plutonium or uranium plants that Iran currently possesses. Obama and other Democrats are lauding this interaction with Iran as an indication of how successful the nuclear deal negotiations have been in creating a more stable relationship with Iran, since it seems they are too afraid to incite the US with violence when sanction relief money is coming soon. This quick hostage scenario is evidence to Obama that a more stable global interaction with Iran is not far away.


Not surprisingly, Republicans responded in the opposite manor. They find Obama's contentment with the quick release of Americans unsatisfactory, and claim that the imprisonment of these people for any time at all displays the failure of the President to actually fix relations with Iran. This was backed up with images of hostages with guns pointed at them, which turned the republican community to rage.  Many also criticize Obama for ignoring this issue at the SOU, as it is of dire national importance.

There is some controversy over an Iranian news video that depicted an American sailor's apology to the people of Iran, yet it is unclear whether this apology was forced or not actually meant as an apology from the US to Iran for this incident. The US declares that no apology was given.

Questions:
1) Do you see this issue as proof of progress in relations with Iran or proof of failed policy? Why?
2) How does ultra partisanship affect daily politics? Even in times of national crisis, everyone still disagrees with each other. Why can't we just agree?
                  3) What do you think about the Iranian nuclear deal? Yay or nay? (Go here for a simple guide)

Sources:
NBC: Click Here
Politico: Click Here
CNN: Click Here
ABC and Pic: Click Here
LA Times and Pic: Click here


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I see this issue as proof of progress in relations with Iran. It is great that the sailors were released, while things could have turned out much worse. I think that ultra partisanship does affect daily politics because it keeps some legislation from being passed or compromised on. In times of national crisis, it would be good if the parties could work together, or agree. I think everyone can agree that we are happy the sailors were returned. I think that the Iranian nuclear deal can be a good thing. It limits Iran's ability to make bombs, but it is still possible. Anyhow, it makes it harder to make a weapon.

Teague Bredl said...

I think if US forces came across a group of ten foreign sailors we'd probably take them in as well. Sounds like espionage. I think that decision ultimately came down to the Officer for the Iranian forces instead of an actually important Iranian official, and since they released them within a day, it doesn't seem to be an actual issue. I think it shows progress with our relations with Iran, I just don't know how much. People like to argue, so the partisan difference of opinion about this isn't very surprising. They can't agree because that would be too easy, and we don't want that. As for the Iranian Nuke Deal, I think that needed to happen to ensure global safety. No country should be allowed to develop that much nuclear potential in my opinion.

Anonymous said...

I think to some degree that this incident does show some progress between the United States and Iran. The fact that these navy soldiers were released in a day just shows how far we have come. However, I agree with Teague in the regard, that I am not really sure how much involvement a higher official in the Iranian government had in this incident, and wether or not they had a big effect on the release of the sailors. I think due partisanship just stems from the fact that everyone just has different ideas and nobody does not want to be wrong, thus they defend and argue for their ideas in the hope of being right. Also, I personally see that will people will not agree with each other during a time of crisis, the crisis will still help motivate them to work together. In regards to the Iran Nuclear Deal, I think it is already helping. I think the pure limitation helps put the whole world to rest for a while. Therefore, it is fantastic.