We Say No War with Iran
So I am a member of the Anti-War Committee and we have been around since 1998. Since then we have opposed all US wars and occupations, and we have seen the way war enjoys bi-partisan agreement in congress, regardless of the will of the people. We vehemently opposed the “War on terror” started by Bush Jr., and we also vehemently opposed the unprecedented power to go to war that Obama’s administration extended its president. At the time, we were told not to worry, because Bush and Obama were level-headed guys who would use these powers responsibly. But now we have a “very stable genius” in the White House who can’t even handle the slightest criticism without flying into a vindictive rampage, there’s more cause for alarm. They handed him the keys and the nuclear launch codes! And as much as Democrats want to position themselves as the solution here, if they wanted to stop the war, they shouldn’t have voted to continue to fund it. Trump recently received another 750 billion dollar budget to continue this endless war, even though the majority of US citizens are against it, and want the troops home now. Congress should have reigned him in, but they didn’t. But I am being supposed to be relieved that Trump is not taking out cultural sites in Iran right now, and *only* imposing more sanctions?
Like hell I am!
Let’s not mince words here: imposing sanctions is not a deescalation tactic, it is quite the opposite. Sanctions ARE an act of war. They are also incredibly cruel. Sanctions punish the population of a country by starving them. They tend to affect the poorest, oldest, youngest and most vulnerable members of society- not the decision makers in charge. They should not be considered by anyone to be a more “tolerant” or “measured” response to aggressions between governments. And I caution you to beware of any politician who says otherwise. We need to oppose the use of sanctions against Iran and elsewhere. And we cannot stop speaking out against this unjust escalation. This cannot wait until someone else is in charge, when the truth is the Iranian people are in danger now, they are suffering now. So I want to be clear. This is not an election issue. This is a right now issue, and the American people need to stand up to this president and the war machine he now commands and say “No to war” once and for all. And I mean all of the wars. We want ALL troops out of the region. We want US tax dollars spent on human needs here at home, not endless wars. Why is that?
Why is it we always have money for drone strikes and F35 bombers, but we don’t have any money for healthcare and public education? Why do we have money for racist, destructive and ineffective border walls, but not for clean water pipes in Flint, Michigan? Trump doesn’t mind spending our tax dollars on trips to his own golf course, but in the meantime he’s cutting food stamps and going after disability benefits. People this is bigger than war with Iran. It’s bigger than the war on terror! This is about getting our government to work for it’s people again instead of war profiteers! We want our country back! We want our tax dollar to go towards human needs here at home, not wars for oil. And above all we want PEACE!
Peace can’t wait until next November. And we cannot stop here now. We cannot allow this momentum to be siphoned off into another elections campaign. Considering the amount of damage our last Democratic president did as far as expanding the war on terror, we can’t wait for Democrats to make promises they will not keep once they’ve secured their seats in office. We need to continue to build this movement and be out in the streets until it ends. We need to make our resistance unstoppable, and indistractable. We will not be fooled. We will not go back to sleep. We will not let our neighbors, friends, coworkers, or family members just forget about and just move on to the next media talking point.
We need to build a unified anti-war movement with teeth to push back on the US war machine’s agenda.
And yes, we have got to stop Trump. But this is not about Trump. This is how the US government had conducted itself for at least the last 3 presidencies. We have got to get our government to focus its energy and OUR resources on problems right here at home. Do not remain calm! Remain active! Remain vigilant! And if you agree, please join me in a chant.
We said end war, we mean all wars.