After reading the following, please sign this petition, and pass along. There is nothing more important than preventing another idiotic war. It does not matter if you like or dislike the president. People who take risks for peace need expressions of broad support.
I worked, contributed and voted for a President who was willing to take risks for peace. That President showed up, big-time, this week.
True, President Eisenhower warned the country about the growing power of the military-industrial complex. Coming from a five-star general, the warning could not have been more credible. But, that was his farewell address.
In the middle of his tenure, President Obama has lowered the boom on sniveling members of his own party, who have developed the tragic habit of ignoring President Eisenhower's warning. AIPAC, the lobby behind the "let's scuttle peace now" strategy, has shown itself less interested in Israel's real security than to serve the interests of the military-industrial complex.
I have started a petition supporting the President's smackdown of his own party's warmongers.
Other presidents have found it easy to risk and fight wars (so long as it is with other peoples' children). Very few have taken big risks for peace.
One who did was President John F. Kennedy. When the generals were plumping for an attack on Cuba to end the Cuban Missile Crisis, JFK not only did not call his action a "blockade" that is itself an act of war, but a "quarantine" that had no such automatic international implication. He also developed a 'back channel' to his Navy ship commanders so that one of the admirals could not circumvent his authority and precipitate a war.
Kennedy was also willing to do what at the height of the Cold War was considered unthinkable. He made a concession to the Soviet Union, agreeing to remove our missiles from Turkey so long as it were not considered a quid pro quo. Instead of war, Kennedy was able to get the Soviet Union to agree to an atmospheric nuclear test ban a year later, sparing the world the scourge of radioactive contamination of its rivers, streams and food supplies.
As has been previously discussed, Congress may be the major threat to mid-east peace. Negotiating an agreement that deprives Iran of a nuclear bomb and the capacity for a quick-breakout to a bomb will be extremely difficult. It may fail. But it must be given every chance of working.
Moreover, the person most angered by failure to reach an agreement will be Barack Obama. After forging a strict sanctions regime that prior presidents have been unable to achieve, the President has provided Iran what may be its last chance.
Negotiations will only be successful if they somehow can provide Iran a framework for mutual respect while simultaneously preventing a quick-breakout capacity to a bomb. The surest way to kill the entire difficult enterprise is to deny Iran mutual respect from the outset, which is exactly what the pre-emptive sanctions are designed to do.
The President is quite right to challenge those kowtowing to the military-industrial complex to state that they really want war. And, the American people need to show the President that they appreciate his willingness to take some risks for peace.
The overwhelming majority of Americans would prefer to give peace a chance. Please sign the petition stating that, and send to your friends.