With a second aircraft carrier group steaming toward the Persian Gulf, tens of thousands of US troops stationed throughout the region, and the sale of tens of billions of dollars in US weapons to Iran’s neighbors in the Gulf region, it seems that war with Iran could be imminent.
But we won’t wait for the bombs to drop to make our voices heard. Over the next two weeks, we want to generate thousands of signatures to counter the war drums. On February 16th, we will deliver our first batch of petitions to the White House.
We know we can impact the President’s efforts to prevent an attack by Israel if we act right away.
Last year, we launched a similar campaign in February to pressure the Obama administration to announce significant troop withdrawals from Afghanistan in July. By the end of June, twenty-seven US Senators signed a letter to the President calling for sizable and sustained reductions in troop levels. By December, a crucial voice vote showed a majority of Senators in favor of a tighter timeline for the withdrawal of all US troops.
We have a short window to take a stand against any military strike on Iran that will strengthen our hand and counter calls from the extreme right to make war. We are already seeing Republican Presidential candidates stumbling over each other to prove they are more willing to use military force than their opponents.
In the past few weeks, administration officials have been meeting with Israeli military and civilian leaders because of increasing concern Israel is preparing to take military action against Iran.
You would hope our ‘leaders’ have learned their lesson. The unintended consequences that plagued the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan are surely at play with regard to Iran. The Obama administration has shown some patience in its search for a diplomatic resolution to the crisis over Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program, but at the moment tensions are running high.
Earlier this month, Iran announced it had begun enriching uranium at the Fordow underground nuclear facility near the holy city of Qom, a move many view as crossing one of Israel’s lines in the sand increasing the risk of military action, despite Israel’s claim such an attack is ‘far off’.