History has already proved us right

I remember the first time I met Homa, an expert colorist and wonderful lady who used to colored my hair once a month. Homa was an Iranian immigrant to the United States. Though we didn’t speak much about Iran, she told me she missed her friends and her extended family.

Homa immigrated to escape the political oppression in Iran. She considered herself lucky, most of her family had been able to follow her. She also shared with me about family cultural treasures that she had been able to bring with her.

Immigrants’ culture is unique. We bring our culture with us and we still remember where we came from as we assimilate and become a part of the American Culture. As a Norwegian American, I follow what so many have done before me in that I participate in American culture, but I have never forgotten the culture I was raised, with especially the food.

Today, as the United States and Israel are waging war, I’m sure Homa is still thinking of Iran. While she may remember the oppression that she managed to escape, she probably thinks of what she left behind, her culture and her people. Will countless deaths in Iran, of schoolgirls like Homa who dream of bright futures for themselves, actually bring change and remove oppression? Or will their deaths be for naught?

“Our President will start a war with Iran because he has absolutely no ability to negotiate. He’s weak and he’s ineffective.” — Donald J. Trump, November 2011.

President Trump brings this war at the behest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, because he is weak and ineffective. You don’t have to ask me, you can ask Trump and his words from 2011. Trump had been negotiating with Iran in the days leading up to the breakout of war. Where President Obama succeeded, Trump failed.

President Obama successfully negotiated and announced a landmark deal in 2015 to curtail Iran’s nuclear program. The deal was internationally comprehensive and included China, France, Russia, United Kingdom, and the European Union. The world was ready to hold Iran accountable should she stray from this deal. In May 2018, Trump withdrew the United States from holding Iran accountable.

I’m not sure what deal Trump thought he could achieve that would have the same layers of worldwide accountability. I don’t know if Trump or Netanyahu think they can successfully regime change when the United States failed that in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Frankly, doesn’t the United States need a working democracy before we can claim to have any values worth exporting?

I remember protesting against the Iraqi War in 2003, in Pensacola, Florida. I was surprised to see anybody protesting downtown when everything there was geared for the war. It didn’t stop the war, but it got the message out, and history taught us we were right. Even Trump said the Iraqi war was wrong. We do have the right to say something, to shout that this war is unjust. Today, I protest this new war because I truly believe it will only cause death and suffering. History has taught us that we don’t have a plan and that only ineffective presidents start preemptive wars.