I just want peace.
When it’s all said and done, if you wanted to boil my show down to one belief. That would be it.
I want peace domestically. No more gun violence. No more political violence. No more paycheck to paycheck families.
I want peace abroad. No more forever wars. No more proxy wars. No more occupations.
The older I get, the more abundantly clear it becomes that diplomacy can get us out of any issue… if we’re willing to share.
Unfortunately, the “adults” in the room rarely see things through the same lens as me.
We are standing on the precipice of another Middle East conflict, and while nothing is set in stone as of the writing of this article, I have the worst kind of feeling that the outcome is inevitable.
Here’s a little bit of context about where I’m coming from on this issue: I’ve never served. Some of my best friends are making careers out of it. I’ve always been inspired by the courage it takes (that I don’t possess) to potentially find yourself in the position where your life could end up on the line, in defense of an IDEA.
The principle behind that is absolutely mind-blowing to someone like me.
I show my support for the troops by pushing for cooler heads to prevail, and prevent senseless violence.
As the world becomes more connected, we’re becoming more acquainted with how the other side of the world lives.
What was once perceived as the “other” has now been replaced by images of men and women looking to live the same kind of lives that we do here in America. I always hoped that more people would come to that realization. I’m not as optimistic these days.
As an elder Millennial, I was a preteen when 9/11 happened. Looking at war from that perspective can sometimes lend itself to a more open minded approach to discussing the matter.
I wasn’t parroting talking heads on the radio, or quoting the Post or the Times. I was asking questions out of childhood curiosity.
If you talk to anyone else my age, they will tell you that it became clear very quickly that most people had no idea what the actual endgame was in that war. All that was known for sure was that it was unpatriotic to say “maybe this isn’t necessary”.
25 years later, I can’t help but feel like I’m watching all the same mistakes here again.
We are very quickly mobilizing to go to war with VERY questionable evidence and a framing of evangelical jingoism.
The worst part is, I see so many people falling right into the same trap again, oblivious to the similarities between the 2 instances.
Now infamous, the WMD claim is one of the most egregious mistakes (probably lie) of the 21st century when concerning foreign policy.
We’re now watching the IDF, and probably US Armed Forces, follow another set of dubious information surrounding Iran’s intention to acquire nukes.
Trump’s director of National Intelligence says Iran has no intention of creating nukes. The International Atomic Energy Association says Iran has no intention of creating nukes. None of America’s allies, outside of Israel, say Iran has intentions to build a nuke. IT’S THE SAME THING ALL OVER AGAIN.
Moreover, if Iran were on the verge of acquiring a nuke, why would you think they would actually drop it?
What’s the gameplan? They acquire one nuke, drop it, cause devastation, and then get completely flatlined? In order to buy that line of reasoning, I argue you would have to believe Iranians possess substandard intelligence across the board.
Allow me to suggest a different theory.
In the Obama years, the American Armed Forces would drone strike with impunity. We would execute terrorists, and often times there would be plenty of “collateral damage” aka civilian casualties. It was a different era. There was not NEARLY the outcry there would be today if something like that happened.
When the war in Ukraine broke out, it never crossed our minds to do something similar to handle Putin. Why? They have nukes. We have to be more diplomatic in our approach in that scenario. Quite frankly, that’s the way it should be.
I’d argue IF Iran is looking to create nukes that would be a much more likely rationale than the idea they would immediately drop it and commit national suicide.
Instead of approaching this with a level head though, we’re considering starting another trillion dollar endeavor, that will not empirically improve your lives in any meaningful way.
The worst part about all of this, and stop me when you’ve heard this before, is that all of the “fiscal hawks” have disappeared, and there is not a single question about whether or not we would be able to afford something like this.
We have a country where more than half of the citizens are struggling, systems and infrastructure are falling apart, and belief in American systems is lower than it’s ever been, but we’re expected to believe that Iran is the biggest thing we need to worry about.
I say no more.
I refuse to watch us go beat for beat making the same mistakes en route to the War on Terror 2.0
I am asking for cooler heads to prevail. Stop the madness.
The original War on Terror cost us 1000s of American lives, 100,000s world wide, damaged our reputation, sacrificed several of our freedoms, and ultimately resulted in 10% of our entire debt.
If Israel wants to keep pushing towards this, that is their right as a sovereign nation, but it absolutely is not our obligation to throw our lot in too.
And I say that without a single ounce of hate for the Jewish community.
We’ve seen this movie before.
Call your Congress people. Let them know you don’t want this. There’s still time to get this to work.
America needs to do the right thing.
