Tensions between the U.S. and Iran are at their highest point in many years, with the most belligerent actors in the entire U.S. foreign policy establishment in the White House driver’s seat.
These are the same people who advocated for the disastrous U.S. wars on Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. They’re the ones advocating for the continued U.S./Saudi obliteration of Yemen and its world-leading humanitarian crisis. They’re the ones advocating for a U.S. blank check to Israel to destroy what few rights and means of subsistence that Palestinians still possess.
While some members of Congress talk about reining in the Trump administration, most Democratic and Republican members alike have already laid the groundwork for war — for decades they have abdicated their constitutional authority to declare war. In addition, most Democratic leaders in Congress repeatedly mimic their Republican colleagues and corporate media outlets in proclaiming that Iran is the “world’s leading State sponsor of terrorism” – conveniently ignoring the massive terror that the U.S. and its Saudi allies have inflicted on countries around the region.
With the Trump administration increasingly desperate to dodge scandals and abysmal polls in the run up to 2020, there is a huge danger that the U.S. will manufacture an excuse to launch a military attack on Iran, as it has with so many previous wars. A military attack on Iran could easily escalate into a region-wide conflagration that would make the wars of the past few decades pale by comparison.
The Chicago Committee Against War and Racism therefore joins in the call of the United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC) to take a stand for peace and hold local antiwar actions on the weekend of July 12-14th — the anniversary of the Iran-Europe-United States agreement that Trump pulled the U.S. out of.
In the face of threats to millions of people, we say loudly: NO war on Iran! END the sanctions and reinstate the nuclear agreement!
Please join us in Chicago at 5:30 pm, Friday, July 12 in front of ABC 7 TV, 190 N. State Street (by the “Lake Street” Red Line el stop).