Tag Archives: Iran

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WE DON’T RECALL (AND WHY WE SHOULD)

Donald Trump loved Tuesday this week. He lives for days like this past Tuesday.

The rest of us don’t. Some 342 million other Americans and 8 billion other denizens of this planet wondered if he’d carry through on his threat that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.”

Trump knew he’d back away from obliterating Iran. Maybe we all knew. It was, after all, TACO Tuesday.

The problem is that when people say the President of the United States is the most powerful person in the world, they’re not just mouthing words. The president, who as of this minute is a spoiled brat from Queens named Donald John Trump, has the capability to kill millions of people in a few minutes.

So you have to take a threat like that seriously. It’s why you got in trouble in school if you talked during a fire drill. Yeah, you knew that nothing was burning – you would have smelled it and seen it. 

But one day, there might be real flames. And being prepared is the best way to save yourself and everyone in your class.

Unfortunately, the stress caused by all this talk isn’t something easily shaken. If you’re an Iranian, or live in a country within missile range of Tehran, you have to wonder if Trump’s deadline is the beginning of the end of your life. 

If you’re an American military service member – or his or her loved ones – you fear that this is the call that isn’t the false alarm. And that the hopes and dreams of your family are about to perish.

There is no good reason why Tuesday had to happen the way it did. There is no reason to ponder the idea that the United States might commit mass murder on a scale that would blow the minds of Hitler, Stalin and any other madman you can remember.

Unfortunately, the Constitution of the United States – the document we venerate under glass at the National Archives, the document we thought was our great contribution to civilization, the document that is a focal point of the biggest musical of the 21st century – has failed a stress test.

It was thought that the other branches of government would check and balance the executive. In the 20th century, we added an amendment that allows responsible members of the executive branch to hold to account a person whose fitness to be president is compromised.

Nobody’s shown up. A Supreme Court stacked in his favor. A Congress that, despite the Republicans holding only narrow margins in both houses, refuses to impeach a madman.

There is almost nothing we can do except wait seven months for the midterm election and drive the Republican Party into the sea.

And his constant state of anxiety might not be remedied if Trump has his way and gums up the congressional election.

We need to learn from this. If we make it through this – and that is a bigger if than it should be – we must develop a safety valve to protect ourselves.

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According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 19 states allow people to file petitions to recall statewide elected officials. The way the election plays out varies – in some states, a new official can be simultaneously elected at the same time the incumbent’s removal is at stake. In others, officials can be appointed or a separate election is scheduled if the incumbent fails.

The most prominent recall election in our lifetime took place in California in 2003. Democrat Gray Davis failed to get 50% of the vote in the recall. Simultaneously, voters chose Arnold Schwarzenegger, running as a Republican, as his successor.

Allowing voters to recall the President of the United States should come at a much higher bar than California’s. Few modern presidents have sustained 50+% approval ratings in polls – including popular presidents such as Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

But if a way could be developed to allow a populace as disgusted as this one is right now, with appropriate guardrails to prevent railroading a president out of office, it would change a lot of things about the current situation.

I’m thinking that, if 60% of the American people say get out, the president should be shown the door.

Note, I’m saying 60% of the people. Not 60% of the states. This would be another check and balance that would ameliorate one of the worst offenses of American democracy – the Electoral College.

In a recall election, my vote in New York would count just as much as some truck driver’s in Wyoming, instead of the current situation in which he or she has more proportional power than I do.

The problem is that it would take a constitutional amendment to make that change. And, yes, that’s something we can push after this all ends.

In the meantime, we could still have the vote.

It would take place in the form of a question on the November ballot. There are 26 states that allow citizens to petition for the placement of questions on the ballot. All 50 states allow voters to act on amendments to state constitutions.

It’s probably too late in the election cycle to get questions on a ballot. But those of you who have participated in No Kings marches would have the chance to make an even stronger impression. 

One that could, finally, put Trump in a place unlike any other in American history. A public censure – the only president ever to get one.

All this is unlikely, I’m afraid. But it’s something to think about.

We should never again be in a position to feel powerless to stop a madman from even bluffing to kill millions of people. The next test will come soon enough – when the two weeks of the supposed cease-fire are up. Or even before that, as the real brains of the operation, Netanyahu, thwarts any effort to stabilize things.

We can’t let this moment pass without it having some mitigation. Recalling the President of the United States might just work.

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LOST VALOR

Yes, we’re just a few days past the 2025 Academy Awards, but let’s reveal the plot for the Best Picture winner of 2036.

The title could be something like “Lost Valor” or “Following Orders.” It takes place in the dark times of the mid to late 2020s and is about a sergeant first class in the U.S. Army. We’ll call him Chad.

After graduating from high school in Missouri, Chad enlists to get the kind of technical training the military provides. His parents also believe it might shape him up after he occasionally got into trouble hanging out with the guys and gals.

Chad likes the Army and his fellow soldiers. He figures maybe two two-year tours and he’ll be in position to get a better paying job in or near his hometown.

But then, Donald Trump decides to war on Iran.

Chad is a good soldier. He carries out orders from superiors to perfection and receives commendations throughout his tour. And when he gets the word to carry out an attack on an Iranian position, he doesn’t question the order, he does what he’s told.

So when it’s discovered that one of the attacks he launched ended up killing 125 Iranian civilians, including children, Chad initially shrugs it off as an accident of war. Some of his fellow soldiers are a little more troubled by what happens – they’re out-and-out angry, and there starts to be discord in the unit.

Months later, Chad is on leave. When he gets to St. Louis in his uniform, he’s notices 175,000 people in the streets protesting the very war he’s been risking his life fighting. He’s disgusted – until he notices a girl he dated briefly in high school. He thinks they parted on good terms, but when he goes up to say hello, she looks at his uniform and snarls.

He responds angrily and is soon met with contempt by other protesters. They call him a baby killer. A St. Louis police officer needs to get him away to avoid a physical altercation.

Chad goes back to his hometown and is shocked to see that the people there are nearly as angry. Gasoline is $6 a gallon, local farmers can’t sell their corn in foreign markets and several local businesses are boarded up. 

He remembers seeing people paying for soldiers’ meals at the local lunch spot. He remembers old guys buying a round for hometown military personnel. 

None of that happens. Even his parents look at him warily. Instead of being a local hero, Chad is a pariah.

He’s heard something about this. During and after the Vietnam War, veterans were treated with contempt for “losing” to the Communists. They couldn’t find jobs or even a sympathetic ear – they were considered deranged or warped. That’s how Rambo got to be Rambo.

Chad is relieved to return to the Middle East, to his barracks. But his compatriots got the same treatment in towns from Augusta, Maine to Pismo Beach, California, from Fort Pierce, Florida to Lihue, Hawaii.

“We just did what we were told to do,” the men tell each other. They’re shaken and disgusted. The MAGA types among them say the news media is to blame, reporting only when bad things happen. 

But Chad isn’t so sure. The girl in St. Louis, the guys at Susan’s Restaurant, his own mother – all of them can’t be brainwashed propaganda victims of whatever is left of liberal news media.

The movie ends with a ceremony at the base. Pete Hegseth is there to give out special medals with the image of Trump flanked by eagles with spears in their talons. The official medal of Operation Epic Fury – the idiotic name for this mess.

When it’s time for Chad to get his medal, he walks up to Hegseth, lets him pin the tacky looking medal on his chest – and spits in Hegseth’s face.

— 

All that is a long way of saying this: There is no honor in this war for American soldiers who choose to participate. 

It’s worse than Vietnam. In Vietnam, veterans were badly treated because it was considered the first U.S. loss. But the American people changed their mind about Vietnam as the war progressed – they realized they had been deceived by America’s leaders. Most prominently, Lyndon Johnson. So it was unfair to blame the soldiers when the attitude shifted.

The Iraq War was another stupid mistake. But except when soldiers committed atrocities, such as at Abu Ghraib, veterans returning from that war and from Afghanistan were not faced with recriminations.

That’s going to change here.

The American people have never supported this war. And soldiers were warned – Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, who served with far more honor than anyone in this clown show of an administration, reminded soldiers before this and the Venezuela adventure that they are not obliged to carry out illegal or immoral orders.

And that’s what Iran is.

So when the kid from “Hamnet” wins Best Actor by perfecting his Missouri accent, as British actors are wont to do, he’ll be recreating a scene that’s bound to happen a lot from now until this nightmare ends.

It’s a terrible thing Trump, Hegseth and the rest of these yutzes have done to dishonor young people who believe in serving their country. People with honorable intentions shouldn’t be forced to weigh the morality of their service.

They’re clearly not the biggest victims of this mess. But their struggle will be Oscar bait.

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GOUGING THE SCAB

In 1978, my father and I engaged in an animated debate on a car ride home. Amazingly, it was about Iran.

What was amazing was who was on what side.

At the time, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was Shah of Iran. He had been a strong ally of the United States for more than 25 years – ever since the U.S. and Britain engineered the coup that toppled an elected prime minister in 1953.

But there was growing opposition to Pahlavi from various groups within Iran. Some sought democratic reforms. Others sought to turn Iran into a religious state – a la Saudi Arabia except for Shi’ite Muslims instead of Sunnis.

Pahlavi’s ruthlessness worsened as he struggled against opponents. And his use of imprisonment, torture and murder became the subject of a “60 Minutes” piece – a reminder in this sad age of how powerful good journalism can be.

Dad – who would be best described today as a moderate – was mortified by what he saw. And when something bothered him that much, he was almost evangelical on the subject.

So why were we debating?

I – supposedly the wide-eyed liberal idealist – said that while I agreed that the Shah was a horrible human being, what would we be getting if he just left? Would there be a nascent democracy? Or would the religious fantastics – led by the exiled cleric Ayatollah Khomeini – turn Iran into an even worse place?

Dad thought it didn’t matter. Torture is evil. Anyone who tortures the people he supposedly leads doesn’t deserve to lead.

He was adamant. And it turned out Jimmy Carter, a strong advocate for human rights, kind of agreed with him. The United States withdrew its support of Pahlavi, who fled the country. 

But it was Khomeini and the fanatics who took control. And it has been a mess ever since.

A mess that has entangled the United States more than once since 1979. Of course, most famously, soon after Khomeini took power, with what we call the Hostage Crisis. American diplomats held by Iran for more than a year after Pahlavi was allowed to be treated for cancer in New York.

The closest we’ve come to reconciliation was late in Barack Obama’s presidency. His team – with the help of Europe, China and Russia – got Iran to agree to repurpose its nuclear development away from weapons in return for the release of assets frozen during the Hostage Crisis.

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The name “Iran” is supposedly derived from the Persian word for “Land of the Aryans.”

Unfortunately, the definition of the word “Iran” in the United States and much of the West is “oil.”

There are lots of places in the world with which this country has had fraught relationships. We seem to be able to leave Vietnam alone after fighting against its interests for about 20 years. 

But the problem with Iran is all that oil. It’s one of the biggest pools of black gook in the world. 

And they don’t want us to have it.

It has a lot to do with the fact that we’ve thwarted their efforts at controlling their destiny in the past, and they don’t trust us not to do it again.

Like Trump did last weekend.

There’s some fantasy that Iranian protests against Ayatollah Khamenei, the brutal leader taken out in the initial attack, meant that the Iranian people might see us as liberators.

Mazharf. That’s the Persian word for baloney.

The Iranians have no reason to trust us. They don’t want us in their lives. And this war we’ve started – whether it’s already ended or drags for months – won’t change any of that. We’re not getting their sweet, sweet oil – which we really wouldn’t need if we committed ourselves to a clean energy future, but that’s another issue.

They, like my Dad did, have long memories. Torture leaves a scab and the U.S. has been picking at it for all of my nearly 72 years and more. 

This time, in fact, we didn’t just pick at it. We amputated it.

It’s not unfathomable that we will end up devastated by this. The Iranians are perfectly capable of inflicting pain on us – now or years in the future.

Ultimately, my father was on the right side of history. Even if the ayatollahs were vicious, hateful men, they were Iranians. It was up to Iranians to decide how to handle this. 

And now, who knows?

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