STOP TRUMP’S PUSH FOR WAR AGAINST IRAN

– U.S. military must leave the Middle East

– No more death-by-deportation for Iraqi refugees

– Trump must resign or be removed

Donald Trump seeks to initiate a new war in the Middle East. Trump’s target is Iran. The battleground, at present, is in Iraq. The dangers of such a war are potentially catastrophic. Because of those dangers, world leaders have sought for decades to avert any outright military conflict with Iran. But Donald Trump is now plunging the United States, the Middle East, and potentially the entire world head-first into those dangers. Trump must be stopped, or else the world may face a disaster unlike anything that has been seen since World War II.

The Trump-ordered assassination of Iranian General Qassim Suleimani can only be regarded as an act of war. No one can believe otherwise. No one believes that the assassination of General Suleimani could possibly lead to peace or stability. On the contrary, the assassination of General Suleimani will lead to greater violence, destabilization, retaliation, and suffering. This military escalation is the only possible result of the assassination—it can only be concluded that a military escalation is the purpose of the assassination.

There is no sane reason for the United States to provoke war against Iran. The U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have proven to be endless fiascos, continuously destabilizing the Middle East while undermining any possibility for peaceful resolution. Iran, on the other hand, is much more powerful than Iraq or Afghanistan. The United States cannot hope to benefit from such a war, and Donald Trump is not attempting to benefit the United States. Donald Trump is attempting to benefit himself. Trump is attempting to distract from his impeachment crisis by creating an even larger crisis. Trump is attempting to hold onto power, to create the one condition that concentrates power most directly in the hands of the President: war.

Alongside Trump’s threat to drown the world in bloodshed, Trump also threatens the democratic foundations of the nation over which he presides. Throughout his presidency, Trump has shown no allegiance to the law, to human rights, to the Constitution, or to the truth—no allegiance to anything other than his own personal gain. Trump faced impeachment because he abused his use of military policy in Ukraine to benefit his own political interests. Trump is now exhibiting the same twisted priorities that led to his impeachment: he is provoking war in order to overcome that impeachment. Trying to compensate for his political weakness in the wake of impeachment, Trump’s military escapades are an act of desperation. Leaping over Congress to initiate an act of war, Trump is daring to show that he holds all power in his hands, and that no one in Congress or anywhere else is really going to stop him.

The dangers of a U.S. war against Iran are made even greater by the fact of the person who would be leading that war. Donald Trump distinguished his Presidency by initiating the draconian “Muslim ban,” by locking Central American children in cages within immigrant concentration camps, and by deporting Iraqi refugees in America to their certain deaths. Trump has built his political support by fanning the flames of racial and religious hatred, by scapegoating immigrants, and by furthering the rise of a neo-fascist, “alt-Right” movement. A Trump-led war would be a war of hatred, a war that extols human destruction as its own end. A Trump-led war also threatens to be a nuclear war, as Trump himself eagerly inquired about his use of nuclear weapons even before he entered the White House. Indeed, a Trump-led war could carry the same historic significance as Hitler’s invasion of Poland in 1939—the beginning of a maniacal and senseless tragedy that engulfs the world in flames.

We cannot allow Trump’s presidency to continue. We cannot allow Trump to destroy the lives of millions of people for the sake of his own power, wealth, and ego. Trump must be stopped. Trump must be forced to resign or must be removed, NOW.