Sam Stein Blasts Vance for ‘Evading Responsibility’ in Failed Iran Deal and Endless ‘War of Choice’

EXCERPT:

STEIN: “Actually, this was a pretty remarkable press briefing by Vance. When he says things like this was inherently unpredictable and the U.S. is the only country that can have the capacity to open the Straits, and we are doing this to protect commercial shipping, he is eliding the fact that he was the one who negotiated or tried to negotiate the memorandum of understanding to bring an end to the war. When he’s talking about we can’t have a time frame on this, there was a time frame, it was a 60-day time frame under the memorandum of understanding to end the war, and it failed. It was his diplomatic failure, which is why we are in this place. And at one point in the press conference, he said something akin to, you know, it’s irresponsible, the Europeans, for not helping us reopen the Strait, because their energy prices depend on what’s happening in the Strait, too. And it’s almost as if he’s just trying to evade utter responsibility for being an administration that launched this war. This is a war of choice. And it’s because it’s a war of choice, it’s because it’s got no end in sight, it’s because it is inherently unpredictable, and it’s because there is no defined purpose to it, that it’s becoming a political liability in November. It would be one thing if we could say, ‘Yeah, this is the objective. This is the time frame. We recognize there sacrifices to make, but here’s why we’re doing it.’ But he can’t do that now. He can’t even call it a war now. And that becomes impossible to sell politically.”