Leave it to the US government to wallow in pretzel logic. Just as the Bush Administration refused to release detainees it knew were innocent because it had abused them so badly in custody that they might now be radicalized against us, the Trump Administration is worried that Iran might have to be finished off entirely because we’ve gone and royally pissed them off beyond repair.
As America continues its unprovoked war of aggression against Iran, American citizens find themselves feeling the uncomfortable emotions of the “Good German.” What do you do when your country is clearly in the wrong and goes to war?
American foreign policy wallows in paranoia. If Saddam lied and kept WMDs, and if he gave them to terrorists, and if those terrorists could somehow bring those WMDs to the US, then Iraq would be a threat. Twenty-three years later, it’s the same bizarre logic when it comes to Iran. Meanwhile, countries that really do hate us and really do have WMDs don’t use them against us.
American troops deployed to places like Iran are frequently said to be defending “our way of life.” But who is this “our,” and whose way of life are they actually protecting?
Many Americans, particularly conservatives, insist they can’t tolerate an Iran where crowds chant “Death to America!” and label the US “the Great Satan.” Rarely, however, do they pause to consider why Iranians feel compelled to express such sentiments.
Barely a day or two into the US–Israeli war against Iran, the deaths of half a dozen American servicemen were announced under mysterious circumstances. Administration officials immediately called for revenge—offering, retroactively, the very justification for war that had never been convincingly provided to the American public beforehand.
As they always do, Democrats bent over so far to give credence to the Republican argument—this time, in favor of starting a war against Iran—that they wound up tacitly agreeing with them. Perhaps they never notice that Republicans never give credence to the other side, no matter what.
Under international law, war is legal only in cases of self-defense or an imminent threat of attack, such as an enemy army massed on your border. As Bush did before Iraq, the Trump Administration cobbled together a ludicrous string of theoretical what-ifs to argue that someday, perhaps, under some scenarios, Iran might threaten the U.S.
Last year, the U.S. bombed Iran and claimed to have “obliterated” its nuclear program. The CIA assessed that Iran was a decade away from developing intercontinental ballistic missiles. Now Trump claims that Iran was just two weeks away from having a nuclear weapon and ICBMs. Either Trump lied, or Iran possesses the most remarkable scientific and construction capabilities on Earth.
Current poverty (living below half the median income in a given year) is associated with approximately 183,000 deaths among Americans aged 15+ per year (about 6.5% of total deaths in that age group). Cumulative/long-term poverty (persistent over 10 years) is associated with around 295,000 deaths in the same year (about 10.5% of deaths), making it the fourth-leading contributor to mortality, behind heart disease, cancer, and smoking. This places poverty ahead of factors like obesity, diabetes, drug overdoses, suicides, firearms, accidents, stroke, and homicide.
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