Congress must stop Israel from dragging the U.S. into another war
By The Rev. Robert Moore
Dear Editor:
Israel has attacked Iran once again, allegedly hitting dozens of targets including nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities, say Israeli officials. They also say this is not a one-day attack, meaning this conflict could quickly escalate.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a brief statement saying Israel acted unilaterally, but unusually did not express support for Israel or its actions, instead stressing concern for U.S. military forces in the region and that Iran should not target them.
This situation once again exposes the fallacy of Trump’s alleged skills as a deal maker: Trump petulantly withdrew from the 2015 Iran anti-nuclear agreement, which was working at preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, but in the many years since has failed to negotiate a new deal. In fact, Israel’s attack came just days before the start of the sixth round of negotiations on a potential new deal to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
As our colleague organization, the National Iranian American Council, stated: “The Israeli government has claimed this is a ‘preemptive’ action, but the only thing they are preempting is a peaceful diplomatic solution, which was always the true threat to warmongers like Netanyahu. Iran was not attacking, nor was it building a nuclear weapon. This strike was unprovoked and illegal under international law. It has needlessly put many innocent people in mortal danger.”
The world cannot afford another war, and Congress must make it clear the U.S. will not be dragged into a conflict created by Israel, and that Congress will invoke the War Powers Act to re-assert its power over declaring war, which the Constitution specifically assigns to Congress, not the president.
We urge concerned citizens to call their U.S. Senators and U.S. House Representative via the Capitol Switchboard, 202-224-3121 to urge them to invoke the War Powers Act to ensure Israel does not drag the US into war, and to instead call for a return to diplomacy. Remind them that during the years the Iran nuclear deal was in effect, Iran adhered to the terms.
The region and the world need peacemakers, now.
The Rev. Robert Moore is the executive director of the Coalition for Peace Action.
Defend Iran. Yeah, that’s a winning stance. The NIAC, cited as “our colleague organization,” is an established lobbying front for the repressive Iranian regime, as a simple google search will reveal. I’m all for peace, but let’s not be naive dupes of a brutal theocracy that beats women to death for insufficiently concealing their hair.
From a layman’s perspective I see the USA actually stepping back from global risks. While at the same time not walking away entirely . Our foreign policy is just being more selective
It is more allies with mutual interests. Other countries take the lead in punishing countries that do not play ball diplomatically, but at the same time maintain some neutrality enough to keep the diplomatic options open. We keep our own troops out of the line of fire and share with the Israeli’s intelligence, weapons and strategy
Right now for political , logistical and leverage, open warfare is not in the cards for Israel and certainly not a weakened Iran.
I feel many countries in the region and Europe are rooting for Israel to decimate Iran attempt to produce a nuclear weapon. (The “Persian Menance” not my words but some Arab friends usage ) makes Iran unpopular in the M.E. Partly because of religious /ethnic differences and it;s support for extremists groups.
On another note, it seems that Hamas attack on Israel has caused a chain reaction that has TKO Iran for the time being. Much of Hamas , Hezbollah, Iranian leadership have been eliminated Russia and Iran were too “preoccupied” to prop up Assad’s Syria and thus limits their influence in that part of the region.
Now Israel is testing the waters, seeing how they can push the drone attacks and covert operations. In the M.E. revolving mirrors of alliances / interests and realpoltick , the real questions to me is how war itself is changing , less conventional , more AI and how the USA continues to adapt
Defending the indefensible.
I can’t understand why people are siding with the enemy. Yes, innocent people die in wars; civilian deaths in WWII besides those in concentration camps were in the ten of thousands; however, the issue here is that innocent people die because their own government murder them in the name of religion and one of these culprits in the world is Iran.
Are we seriously defending Iran? Hamas? Hezbollah? Hoothies?
We don’t want civilians deaths, nobody does except terrorists so we simply can’t side with them and unfortunately, can’t negotiate with them.
In my opinion, this is defending the undefensible.
Are we really going to trust a nation that has screamed left and right “Death to America” and “Death to the Jews”? A nation that has not only supported terrorists’ attacks ( Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthi’s, etc) but also done them themselves?
Are we going to support a country that has no issues in murdering its own people in the name of religion while restraining freedom of speech, women’s rights, and without any consideration to LGBTQ+ and other minority groups?
Are we actually siding with a terror regime?
I think this is rather naïve and dangerous.