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PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   12187 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of April 6, 2026

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Aren't we already far enough in the future that the JCPOA provisions limiting Iran's nuclear program would already be ending? It looks like it was set to gradually sunset over years 10-15, and we've already hit the 10 year mark.

I'm not knowledgeable enough to claim a useful opinion on either keeping it or tearing it up, but at some point that discussion has to become moot because either way it wouldn't have applied anymore. Maybe it's arguable that it could have been extended, but I suspect the sunset clause was a sticking point in reaching the agreement to begin with.

The practical function of the JCPOA was to get investigators on the ground in Iran by officially bribing Iran via lifting sanctions. Which would have allowed inspectors to investigate around Iran for 8 of these past years. All whilst being able to monitor Iran's nuclear program on the ground as it developed along with eased limits on enrichment and stockpiles.

I think there's a clear difference between knowing exactly what Iran is doing with its nuclear material at all times and having on ground ability to discover if they have gotten farther along somewhere in secret, versus being completely in the dark. To that extent I don't see why one would need strict limits on all nuclear material in Iran so long as it is all earmarked and accounted for.

The alternative is murdering intelligent persons in Iran until they no longer have the human capital to sustain nuclear research, or do 'regime change'. I think that, with hindsight and how the current war is going, we can safely recognize that there was a lot of utility lost by rifting the agreement. And considering that the sanctions were not enough to declaw Iran, it's hard to tell what was gained.

I'm not knowledgeable enough to claim a useful opinion on either keeping it or tearing it up, but at some point that discussion has to become moot because either way it wouldn't have applied anymore.

Not really. A world with/out the JCPOA is different at sunset than the reverse. Iran is starting from somewhere.

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