Within an hour nearly 80,000 people reacted favorably to it, many even virtually “laughing” at his posturing.

How quickly people forget.

President Trump speaks during a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the Oval Office of the White House on Thursday. Trump declared that "Iran made a very big mistake" in shooting down a U.S. drone but suggested it was an accident rather than a strategic error. Evan Vucci/Associated Press

Just as the Bush/Cheney administration completely manufactured the so-called “War on Terror” and the Iraq War, despite the eventual unpopularity, we are seeing the very same thing again firsthand  by a president who claimed in the debates he would not go down such a path. Just another lie, I guess.

With no evidence put forth by Trump, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, National Security Advisor John Bolton, or any of the other active wannabe architects of the proposed Iran War, they claim that Iran attacked a Japanese oil tanker out of the blue — coincidentally just as all of these swamp-dwelling psychopaths want to fight in Iran. What will it mean to get into a war with Iran over this instance, or any other excuse manufactured by the Trump administration?

Being the war-mongering America, of course, we have plenty of recent history to consult.

It is conservatively estimated that the War on Terror has killed over 500,000 people, over half of which were civilians, and 7,000 U.S. troops. We’ve spent over $6 trillion on the war. In the spirit of bipartisan hopelessness, Democrat Joe Biden, the party’s presidential frontrunner, voted in favor of the Iraq War, where over 200,000 civilians perished, all so we could gain access to oil and give companies a chance to open up shop in a new market. Barack Obama expanded the War on Terror to other countries. Between the Dirty Wars of the 1980s and the continued War on Terror, god only knows how many seek refuge as a result of U.S.-led military intervention.

As if I need to pile on to this damning paragraph, the War on Terror has also been used as justification for warrantless domestic spying (causing many to question the merits of a free press), getting felt up at airports, the use of torture in inhumane prisons, and expanded, unchecked power permitted to the executive branch. What would the supposedly-beloved Founding Fathers say?

And the Trump administration and his crowd of cheerleaders, who will always favor every single thing he says and does, are gleefully going down this unsustainable path.

The American people gain absolutely nothing from a war like this. In fact, as the FBI predicted in 2006 on the heels of the Iraq War, we actually see an increase in terrorism due to belligerent foreign policy conducted by the U.S. We get spied upon. We spend our tax dollars on “liberating” other countries instead of helping our children, our environment, or the never-ending supply of veterans who return home with problems — if they’re lucky enough to be alive after these unnecessary, elite-serving wars. Millions are displaced and seek refuge after their homes are destroyed, which are used by self-serving politicians to cause political rifts in America.

And all the while, all of these problems literally created by these wars are used as bargaining chips to keep the architects of the wars in power. The “dangerous illegals” have got to go — even though the wars, in many cases, created them. The “terrorists have got to be killed” — even though our actions create more of them. We have to be spied upon and felt up in airports, just in case a terrorist is among us. Though we supposedly “can’t afford” a litany of other things such as the Green New Deal, education, etc., there is always money — trillions in fact — available for war. Though foreign policy doesn’t seem to be a great vehicle for change in this country as we sit back and wallow in our faux-patriotism and privilege, it indeed vastly effects our own political process far more than most voters realize.

And meanwhile, the people cheer and relish in their blissful ignorance. They give heart and “ha-ha” emoticons in support of another unnecessary war, unable (or unwilling) to grasp what it might be like to live in a country where 200,000 civilians have died, in some cases literally at their own weddings, for absolutely no good reason.

Now is the time to break this vicious cycle of violence, authoritarianism, wastefulness, demagoguery, racism and hate. Say no to an Iran War early and often.

Sam Shain of Hallowell is a musician and an English teacher.

Related Stories