I think it is time Americans say, "No" to further Middle Eastern wars or to support of the same. My letter below is pretty clear on my position. I suggest you send letters, (a very simple thing to do), to your senators and to the President.
It makes a difference. Apparently many in the Israeli government and military want to attack Iran ... soon. Before our November elections, so they can get support — of course.
Despite our long term close relationship with Israel and numerous ties, we must avert such a war. It is potentially nuclear, will certainly be cast as a "Zionist /Christian crusade against Islam," and may well lead to a third world war. It would be horrific and uncontainable.
Please, please, please.
Take five minutes and act right now. Silence on Issues like this one is tacit approval for whatever happens.
Sample letter:
Dear Mr. President-Senator-etc.,
Please do everything possible to avert war with Iran. Our two wars, the Afghan and Iraqi wars, cost $1.3 trillion, killed thousands of well intentioned young Americans, maimed tens of thousands, both psychologically and physically and slaughtered hundreds of thousands of civilians who had Nothing to do with the despotic administrations.
For this price, we have nothing. Iraq is a disaster ... no more Democratic than before; we are still in Afghanistan, more die — it never ends. We have secured new enemies who hate our occupation and intervention, have offended our allies with this militarism and pressure to join the "willing" and the sole beneficiaries are huge corporations paid for weapons to destroy countries and then paid to rebuild what we have taken down.
Israel seems determined to go forth with strikes on Iran regardless of potential consequences that stagger the imagination. We must let Israel know that we oppose such radical and reckless actions and will not support, in any fashion, strikes on — let alone war with — Iran. Bombing Iran is like bombing a prison camp. The populace bear no responsibility for their administrations despotic and irresponsible policies.
Their blood will be on our hands and then ... Who are the despots? Such a war cannot be contained. Our gift to our children and their children must not be perpetual war.
Please do post that link because of those who have earned the Medal of Honor, only 81 are living at this time and only one of those has served in the War on Terror. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_living_Medal_of_Honor_recipients Now I can imagine that some Commendation Medals and Bronze Stars, or the like, may be turned in during an event you describe, but an MOH is a far far different level of recognition. If I am wrong about MOH recipients, do please provide a link. You have strong beliefs which is fine, but you made significant errors in your argument about confusing Desert Storm with the Iraq War and now the Medal of Honor. Such a level of misunderstanding, while it does not diminish the fervor of your argument and perhaps your general points, it does diminish your credibility in the fact that it shows that you are not as versed in things as you claim to be.
Can you name a dictator that turned from his dictatorial ways to democracy via a good conversation? I am not in favor of war with Iran. Since WWII the US no longer fights wars with winning as the central focus; instead, the central focus is how will it look on 6 o'clock news. That is why more recent wars drag out for so long. Unlike FDR, Bush could not carpet bomb Iraq into submission because we had news reporters following every bomb that dropped from the sky. If a stray brick killed a family goat they were ready to attack Bush on genocide charges. However, currently Obama is waging a drone war in the middle east. He has conducted 5x the number of drone attacks in 3 years as Bush had in 8. We know little about them unless they kill a big name target. How many civilians have they killed? Have they made mistakes? We don't know, but I will commend Obama for this. This is the only way to conduct a war today, in secret and slowly picking off your opponent. No news cameras, no witnesses or maybe destroying witnesses as well (I guess I could be convinced killing the news reporter also). Start playing this game in Iraq and they will quickly change their direction. However, our neutered president only flies spy drones over Iraq and allows them to be captured. Obama is only able to pull this off because he is the chosen one. If Bush had conducted a secret drone war over the middle east, the you and the media would have had him crucified.
I am sure that keeping the straits of Hormuz open had everything to do with the scary US and nothing to do with oil revenues. Interesting your hatred for Bush while US favorability among middle eastern countries has fallen since Obama took office. http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/zogby-obama-plummets-popularity/2011/07/12/id/403380 But that must be residual from the Bush administration, right.
So many bad arguments...so little time... 1. Who said we should have a "good conversation" with a dictator? Nice straw man you have there. How about taking a low-key approach to supporting reforms that will ultimately lead to the dictator's downfall? The Iranians have experience at this. They overthrough the American-installed Shah. Because of this history, overt U.S. involvement will only serve to unite the Iranians in opposition to us. 2."the US no longer fights wars with winning as the central focus" - Wrong. Just wrong. Our problem is we keep thinking all wars are like WWII. Apparently you are stuck in the same thinking as demonstrated by ... 3. "Bush could not carpet bomb..." The Iraq war killed at least 100,000 Iraqis and created over a million refugees. Exactly how much blood and slaughter were you looking for while we searched for imaginary WMDs? Remember the Vietnam quote - "we had to destroy the village to save it"? Is that your philosophy? 4. Obama and Drones - You have no clue what is being done in Iran at this time. You don't understand the limitations of drones, for one thing. But you also seem to think that there is no covert action going on in Iran. Do some research. 5. Bush and Drones - they were first used extensively in the Iraq war, so that would be Bush. The media treated it just like they do now. In fact, I recall McCain chastising Obama for using drones. Thanks for giving me a chance to educate you on this J. B.
Was that the same poll that said a majority of respondents felt that the Middle East would be better if Iran had nuclear weapons? http://tiny.cc/gbyeew And here I thought you hated Iran...
The link did have a summary using the word medal of honor. Perhaps that was not correct...I am not up on how many medals of honor are handed out. They are returning their medals. Thank you for the correction if I was wrong.
First off, if you intended to educate, you need more then your own opinion in order to do so. Do you work in public education? Where can I find a list of current US covert actions? Why didn't Obama show support for the democracy movement in Iran? That would have been helpful and low key. What is our current goal in Afghanistan? Can you tell me if we are going after the win?
I am not advocating carpet bombing, rather I am explaining my view against a war in Iran. The American public is unable to handle the reality of war. St. Swithin referenced 100K civilians dead in Iraq, his desire to toss that unexplained number about proves my point. Less then 15% came from accidental deaths associated with US actions, compared to over 30% caused by suicide bombers. The truth behind that number is that US time in Iraq was incredibly clean by war standards and Americans still have trouble with it. A war in Iran would be bloody and the religious leaders propping up the government would ensure it was bloody knowing full well the American public would turn on the war. That is why I am against it, not because of guilt. Our president has had opportunities to stand up to Ahmadinejad; however, has remained mute. While at the same time promoting the radical Muslim Brotherhood in other countries. These actions have embolden Iran and allowed them to proceed toward nuclear armament. Direct military actions may not be prudent, but a couple shots across the bow could be beneficial. Even outright destruction of nuclear facilities. To hell with what the rest of world thinks.
All factors matter . A military option is never off the table, because to do so only weakens your own position.
Last time a checked, we aren't the only nation inhabiting the planet and we should care what the rest of the world thinks. We need them and we can't afford to be the world's outlaw.
They are the Iraq Campaign Medal and Global War on Terrorism Service Medal. THe ICM is awarded to anyone who served in Iraq and the GWTSM is awarded to anyone in the military during the War on Terror, regardless of location serving. It would make sense to reject these medals if one wanted to make a political point about a particular war. Neither of these medals are awarded specifically for bravery or exemplary service. Such medals include the Bronze Star or Silver Star. These are considered individual awards and one has to go above and beyond what is expected in order to earn them.
In you current blog you question the responsibility of the citizenship over their own government. Those 'dictators' put in power by the US, which was not held in check by the citizen? Which ones abused their power in ways the US could not have predicted? Tell me, what are we if as citizens find our own country evil? Are we the only country to have committed evil? Unless you wish the US to become isolationist, bad things will happen. As isolationist, wouldn't we then be evil for not getting involved? As I have said, the US is net gain to the world are we perfect, no; but neither is any other country. However, as the superpower, we have had to handle the big problems. What is your solution? Wait until the poop hits the fan and then get involved? I would challenge that a reactive middle east policy as seen by Clinton and Obama has created a more unstable situation then a proactive policy by Reagan and Bush.
"Last time a checked, we aren't the only nation inhabiting the planet and we should care what the rest of the world thinks." Funny though for how badly liberals like to blame the US for the problems, we certainly have lots of friends and lots of people taking our money. My guess is countries would be more angry at us for cutting aid then they would be if we eliminated Iran as a threat.
Why would isolationism be the only imaginable option to aggressive imperialistic expansion? What about cooperation for instance? Trade that is fair...not forced... not stacked. What about using some of these trillions of dollars to do really humane, wonderful things so that our influence is by positive example and attraction rather than under threat of violence, extorsion, economic threat, etc?
"He was a statistical control officer in the Army Air Forces during World War II, entering the service as a Captain and leaving as a Lieutenant Colonel. He worked beside General Curtis LeMay in planning almost a thousand pre-atomic firebombings of 67 Japanese cities, calculating in advance the number of Japanese civilians who would die. "In a single night," McNamara remembered, "we burned to death 100,000 civilians -- men, women, and children in Tokyo." He said that LeMay once told him, "If we'd lost the war, we'd all have been prosecuted as war criminals." A bean counter of sorts. Quite an abstract thinker.
"Where can I find a list of current US covert actions?" ROTFLMAO - That is the funniest thing I have heard today. J.B., I think you need to look up the word 'covert'. If you are actually interested in learning something, you could quit reading NewsMax and start monitoring military and foreign affairs blogs like I do. Then you would get a mix of informed rumors and speculation by knowledgeable and experienced people that have contacts in the special ops and covert fields. The best stuff, of course, is classified and they won't openly discuss it. But you can get a feel for it on the right blogs. At the same time you can learn from experts why attacking Iran is such a stupid idea. I recommend http://www.foreignpolicy.com/ as a starting point.