Dear Editor,
Let’s have a quick show of hands. Who here in the U.S. feels safer now that we’re killing Iranian schoolgirls? And can anyone tell me what, exactly, Iran has done to warrant American involvement in that country’s endless conflict with Israel? Is nuclear-armed Israel unable to defend itself? I suspect that no one in Israel would agree with that premise.
The truth is, that there has never been a point in history in which Iran posed any kind of threat to the security of the United States. Of course, the Trump administration would like you to believe that the hostage crisis of 1979 marks the beginning of some kind of crucial, on-going struggle between good and evil. In fact, once the hostages – all of them – were released, Ronald Reagan not only lifted sanctions on Iran, but supplied that regime with over 2,000 missiles.
Even if retribution were a requirement, why wasn’t that satisfied by the subsequent destruction of Iran Air 655, the passenger plane “accidentally” shot down by an American warship over international waters? The civilian death toll was 290. The ship’s captain received the Legion of Merit award. The United States has never even issued an apology.
What remains to be seen is the degree to which the current fiasco will resemble our destruction of Iraq. That too, was launched upon a flurry of lies, regarding specifically, Saddam Hussein’s supposed complicity in the 9/11 attacks as well as his possession of “weapons of mass destruction.” Over 4,000 U.S. service personnel died for those lies. While tens of thousands of Iraqis – none of whom had anything to do with 9/11 – were blown to bits. Please note that, like today, the decision-makers were throwing other peoples’ children into the fire, not their own.
The real threat to Americans is our headlong rush toward normalizing blatant murder, whether that be of nameless occupants of motorboats in the Caribbean, schoolgirls in Iran or United States citizens in the streets of Minneapolis. It is tragedy enough to be under the rule of a creature who utterly lacks conscience, kindness or magnanimity. By every means available to us, we must resist being dragged into the sewer behind him.
Michael Brandt
Spring Green, WI