They have more in common than their location in the Middle East and the first 3 letters of their English names. The saber-rattling against Iran by the current U.S. administration is strangely like that of Bush and the Cheney group about Iraq. Do we have such short memories?
First, it is critical to know that Iran DID uphold its part of the Iranian Nuclear deal that Obama was a lead in developing, but under Trump the U.S. did NOT uphold our part of the agreement. The agreement states that in return for verifiably abiding by its commitments, Iran will receive relief from U.S., European Union, and United Nations Security Council nuclear-related sanctions. Iran’s government is no saint, but they did follow the agreement, which was attested to by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) per the treaty. By March 2018, the IAEA had installed tamper-proof seals, collected surveillance camera photos, and measured data and documents for further analysis leading Director Yukiya Amano to state that they have verified that Iran is implementing its nuclear-related commitments. But instead of even waiting for this verification, Trump and his hawks started threatening Iran, yet Iran continued to work to uphold its part of the bargain.
You have an agreement, you do your part, but then the other side reneges. What do you do? You get angry and talk about it; then the other side gets annoyed at you for that, gets tougher and tries to suffocate you. Really? YES, REALLY. Our hawks are talking about regime change. That should sound very familiar.
Wait a minute. Did we not learn anything from Iraq, from Korea, from Vietnam, from Cuba, from Afghanistan….
“The Constitution grants Congress the sole power to declare war. Congress has declared war on 11 occasions, including its first declaration of war with Great Britain in 1812. Congress approved its last formal declaration of war during World War II. Since that time it has agreed to resolutions authorizing the use of military force and continues to shape U.S. military policy through appropriations and oversight.” www.senate.gov/pagelayout/history/h_multi_sections_and_teasers/WarDeclarationsbyCongress.htm The last time Congress declared war was on June 4, 1942, against Rumania. Yet how many “wars” have we been in since?
But even that last sentence from the U.S. Senate’s website “…shape U.S. military policy through appropriations and oversight” is not totally true because a strong administration as conceived of and created by the Cheney gang has undermined this.
WE HAVE NO BUSINESS ATTEMPTING REGIME CHANGE IN FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS! Especially when NO other country agrees with us (except possibly Israel, who would do anything to destroy other Middle East countries).
For one thing it DOES NOT work. It only creates chaos or an entrenched ‘enemy.’ Don’t we remember ANYTHING from the past!
The citizens of the United States MUST not let this administration start another ‘war’ on trumped up charges against Iran, in which our sons and daughters will be killed, maimed, or sent home with irreversible PTS as well as destabilize the Middle East even more, isolate us even further from our former allies, and possibly start WW III, in which no country or person on this planet will survive ‘whole.’ The IAEA must continue its verification work in Iran; of course that is necessary, but the U.S. also must abide by its international agreements.
The country representatives at The Joint Comprehensive Agreement (the formal name of the Iran Nuclear agreement) signing in Vienna.