Pearl River Finally, President Trump sobered up, giving peace a chance for at least two weeks before pulling the United States into another needless war. Calling for Iran to surrender was just mouthing off, when diplomacy was needed, so his latest pronouncements give us hope that he has come to his senses for a minute.
Only weeks earlier, Trump from all reports had been a steadying hand, refusing to greenlight the Israeli air attacks on facilities in Iran. He had believed, whether correctly or not, that the US and Iran were close to a deal on Iran not moving forward on a nuclear bomb building project. Other contemporary reports from US intelligence agencies confirmed that Iran had not made a decision to increase capacity to create such a bomb and disagreed with the case being made by Israeli intelligence to the contrary. When Israel unilaterally moved to attack targets in Iran with their air strikes, catching Iran by surprise, since they were still believing in the US negotiations as well, Trump in the excitement of the moment reflectively blurted out his support for Israel and called for surrender, tearing the sheets with Iran.
The Iran foreign minister says that the US has been desperately trying to reopen negotiations. That’s good news. Iran, unsurprisingly, is saying there can’t be negotiations as long as they are under attack by Israel. They judge Trump’s earlier remarks as making the US equally culpable in this conflict.
Reputable polls indicate that hardly a quarter of the American people support the US joining Israel in this dispute. Other reports indicate there is even a huge split in the red meat MAGA Trump base on the issue. Tucker Carlson, formerly of Fox, and Stephen Bannon, a former Trump Svengali, among other America firsters are decrying any involvement in an armed conflict with Iran, even as other hard liners have their trigger fingers itching. The American people, Bannon, Carlson, and others are right, this is not our fight, nor should it be a fight at all.
It’s hard not to see Netanyahu and Israel, first in Gaza and now in Iran, as completely out of control. They have destroyed their emerging relationships with other Middle Eastern countries. Their treatment of Palestinians has alienated them from virtually all European countries. Their conduct in both Gaza, the West Bank, and now Iran have raised constant questioning of whether their actions are illegal under international law. International courts have questioned their operations as violating human rights standards. This tail should not be allowed to wag our dog. Israel needs to be restrained, not enabled. The country and its far-right leadership need to be accountable for the damage and deaths they are causing and certainly not encouraged.
There’s another part of me that just doesn’t get any of this. Given the acceleration of science and technology, does anyone really believe that any but the smallest and poorest countries across the globe would not be able over the coming years to develop nuclear strike capacity? We’re backing out of nonproliferation treaties, when we need more such treaties. When we’re moving toward almost any medium to large country having a bomb, the Cold War standoff is here again. These kinds of wars and their global consequences are too dangerous to abide. The times demand a deeper commitment to peace and diplomacy, not the pursuit of wars based on momentary advantage and historic animosity. The US has a huge role to play, and it should be reaching our hands across borders, not pulling the trigger.