War with Iran Would Be Disastrous

Israeli prime minister Netanyahu and a number of U.S. Congress members warn that peace with Iran would be catastrophic.

Are they right?

We think the mullahs in Iran are bad (we also think fundamentalist Christians, Hindus, Buddhists and Jews are bad). In fact, most Iranians are moderates who don’t like how fundamentalist the mullahs are.

But Iran isn’t the danger the hawks would have you believe …

Let’s look at the facts:

• The U.S. has been claiming for more than 30 years that Iran was on the verge of nuclear capability

• Contrary to widespread claims, there is NO EVIDENCE that Iran is building a nuclear weapon.  Even Israel Israel admits that Iran has not decided to build a nuclear bomb.

• The U.S. FRAMED Iran by giving it fake nuclear drawings

• The former Israeli nuke chief says  that Iran is 10 years away from having a nuclear bomb

• The U.S. helped fund Iran’s nuclear program

• Top American defense officials say that – despite its heated rhetoric (often mistranslated in the U.S.) – Iran is a “rational actor”

• Experts say that Iran poses very little threat to the West or Israel . Top American and Israeli military and intelligence officials say that – even if Iran did build a nuclear bomb – it would not be that dangerous, because Israel and America have so many more nukes. And see this

• Conversely, American military and intelligence chiefs say that attacking Iran would only speed up its development of nuclear weapons, empower its hardliners, and undermine the chance for democratic reform

• Iran has not started a war for at least 188 years (in the Iran-Iraq war, Iraq was the initial aggressor)

• The U.S. armed and supported Iraq after it invaded Iran and engaged in a long, bloody war which included the use of chemical weapons. Here is former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld meeting with Saddam Hussein in the 1980’s, several months after Saddam had used chemical weapons in a massacre:

• The CIA admits that the U.S. overthrew the moderate, suit-and-tie-wearing, Democratically-elected prime minister of Iran in 1953. He was overthrown because he had nationalized Iran’s oil, which had previously been controlled by BP and other Western oil companies. As part of that action, the CIA admits that it hired Iranians to pose as Communists and stage bombings in Iran in order to turn the country against its prime minister

• Hawks in the U.S. government been pushing for another round of regime change in Iran for decades

• The people pushing for war against Iran are the same people who pushed for war against Iraq, and said it would be a “cakewalk”. See this and this

• The U.S. currently funds terrorist groups within Iran

• If the U.S. hadn’t overthrown the moderate Iranian government, the fundamentalist Mullahs would have never taken over. (Moreover, the U.S. has had a large hand in strengthening radical Islam in the Middle East by supporting radicals to fight the Soviets and others)

• On the other hand, the most violent Muslims are Sunnis. America backs the Sunnis in their fight against the Shias. Iran is a Shia country, and 89% of Iranian people are Shia

• And – in a real exhibition of idiocy – mainstream U.S. writers are calling for America to SUPPORT Al Qaeda and ISIS

• Top economists say that war is destroying our economy.  But war is great for the bankers and the defense contractors, and some of the powers-that-be are worried that peace with Iran would be bad for business

• America’s decades-long wars are hurting our national security. A top Pentagon official say we’re no safer – and perhaps less safe – after 13 years of war. Indeed, war only PROMOTED the dramatic expansion of even worse terrorists.

• Never-ending wars are also destroying our freedom. The Founding Fathers warned against standing armies, saying that they destroy freedom. (update). Perversely, our government  treats anti-war sentiment as terrorism.  But peace and international trade is the only way to save our country