Unnecessary or illegal war is a betrayal of our military as was the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.
American leadership, Israel and its U.S. lobby were responsible for the resulting unnecessary death or injury of hundreds of thousands, including tens of thousands of U.S. military personnel.
The U.S. now prepares to betray its military and the nation again by joining Israel in an illegal, pre-emptive war against Iran and possibly Russia.
This could involve even greater unnecessary death and injury to our military.
Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, chief of staff for former Secretary of State Colin Powell, has confirmed that the case for invading Iraq was bogus but that pressure from the Israel lobby and others to invade Iraq prevailed, which he said in a Feb. 5 op-ed in The New York Times.
He demonstrates these same forces are now urging another unnecessary U.S.-Israel war against Iran.
Former Vice President Joe Biden warned Benjamin Netanyahu to little avail that his Palestinian territory invasions endanger the security of U.S. troops who are fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan (Foreign Policy, March 14, 2010).
Former American Generals Jim Mattis and David Petraeus have stated that the U.S. military’s job is more difficult in the Middle East because the U.S. commitment to a just Israel Palestinian peace is no longer credible (“We pay a price for backing Israel,” Times of Israel, Feb. 25, 2013).
In fact, U.S. policy now officially rejects the concept that the Israel Palestinian conflict has any causal relation to the Middle East conflict (https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/NSS-Final-12-18-2017-0905-2.pdf).
To avoid further unnecessary injury and death to our military, the U.S. must tell Israel what China told North Korea: If you are attacked, we will defend you. If you start a war, you are on your own.
Malcolm D. McPhee,
Sequim