Reject the Iran Hawks' War of Aggression

The U.S. should not be committing acts of aggression against other countries.

The New York Times editors miss the mark:

If Mr. Trump wants the United States to join the Israeli war against Iran, the next step is as clear: Congress must first authorize the use of military force.

It is true that the president cannot lawfully launch a war against Iran on his own, but the editorial ignores the legal reality that the U.S. has no right to attack Iran. It doesn’t matter whether Congress votes in favor of it or not. It would still be a gross breach of international law and the U.N. Charter.

Congress made a terrible mistake and passed a resolution authorizing the use of military force against Iraq in 2002. That didn’t make the ensuing invasion legal under international law. The U.S. had no legitimate cause for war in 2003, and it doesn’t have one today. There was no international mandate for using force against Iraq, and there is no mandate to use force against Iran now.

This goes to the heart of the matter. It is obvious that the U.S. would not be acting in self-defense by bombing targets inside Iran. If the U.S. did this, it would be taking part in an unprovoked assault on another sovereign state. The U.S. should not be committing acts of aggression against other countries.

The editorial refers to having a “vital debate,” but there really shouldn’t be anything to debate here. On one side, there are warmongers determined to plunge the U.S. and the region into hell, and on the other is the vast majority of the population that wants to have nothing to do with this conflict. It is a measure of how undemocratic and unaccountable our foreign policy debates are that there is any doubt as to which side should prevail.

The question before us is whether we as Americans are willing to permit our government to launch a war of aggression against a country whose government has done nothing to provoke an attack. According to the latest surveys, a majority of Americans does not want the U.S. to join the war. Only 16% support entering the war. Attacking Iran would not only be unjust and illegal, but it would also be very unpopular across the political spectrum.

A joint U.S.-Israeli war on Iran amounts to having two powerful, nuclear-armed states gang up on a weaker country without nuclear weapons and killing its people simply because they can and want to. It is despicable and indefensible. It is an indictment of our foreign policy establishment and our political leadership that it is even being entertained as an option.

The title of the editorial is “America Must Not Rush Into a War Against Iran.” I understand what they are getting at here, but this is a strange way to talk about launching a war of aggression. The problem is not that the U.S. may be acting too hastily, but that our government may soon be illegally attacking another country. America should not wage war against Iran at all. The Iraq war wasn’t wrong because George W. Bush “rushed” to war, but because the U.S. had absolutely no right to attack Iraq regardless of the schedule and because there was no threat that could possibly justify the use of force.

Americans should reject the Iran hawks’ war of aggression. Attacking Iran would be profoundly wrong and it would also be a disaster for the interests of our country. It must not be allowed to happen.