Ten years ago, while conflict still raged in Iraq, the King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia urged us to start another war. 1/
post-gazette.com/opinion/Op-Ed/…
post-gazette.com/opinion/Op-Ed/…
“Cut off the head of the snake,” he told American officials in 2008. He wanted the U.S. to attack Iran and end its nuclear program by force. 2/
reuters.com/article/us-wik…
reuters.com/article/us-wik…
America found a better way. We put together an accord that rolled back Iran’s nuclear program, froze it, and put it under lock and seal. It worked, and is still working. 3/ iaea.org/sites/default/…
But rather than see this as a solution to their problems, the Saudis, joined by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, saw it as an obstacle to their greater designs: to roll back the influence of their regional rival. 4/
Both lobbied Trump relentlessly & cheered when he pulled out of the Iran deal. Since then, the Trump admin has followed the Iraq War playbook: cherry-pick intelligence, inflate threats, link Iran w/ terrorists & ratchet up the rhetoric. 5/ axios.com/trump-administ…
All pressure and no diplomacy risks dragging the U.S. into a millennia-old religious war between Sunni and Shia. The main tripwires are in Yemen and Syria, where Bolton wants U.S. troops to push Iran out. 6/ washingtonpost.com/world/national…
Make no mistake: war with Iran would be a painful and pointless disaster. It would cost trillions, kill thousands, and destabilize a volatile region. It would also not, in any conceivable scenario, bring about a democratic, pro-Western Iran. 7/
Iran is guilty of many atrocities, but Saudi Arabia is little better. U.S. policy should be to change the behavior of these regimes, not to wage war on them. The new Congress must lead the way before it’s too late. 8/8 post-gazette.com/opinion/Op-Ed/…
