In a Saturday column, Greenfield freelance writer Allen Woods argues that a US war involving Iran is not a small price for safety. He says Donald Trump brushed off concerns on Oct. 5 with the words, “It’s a small price to pay for keeping our world safe, our country safe.”
Woods contrasts that claim with the 2003 US war in Iraq, which he says followed false statements about weapons of mass destruction. He writes that the war lasted eight more years and cost about $2 trillion, with 4,500 American deaths, 32,000 wounded, 300,00 civilian deaths, and 15 million refugees and homeless people, and that the violence continues without greater safety or stability.
He then describes the 2015 nuclear agreement reached by Barack Obama’s negotiators with the support and agreement of China, Russia, Great Britain, France, Germany and the European Union. Under it, Iran agreed to keep its nuclear program below the scale needed for nuclear weapons in exchange for relief from economic sanctions. Woods writes that the provisions worked and were certified by Trump’s own administration before the United States withdrew in 2018.
The column says Trump’s war has brought deadly chaos in the Middle East, including ships destroyed in the Strait of Hormuz and attacks by the United States, Iran and Islamic extremists on airports, bridges and highways, along with harm to schoolchildren, hospitals and neighborhoods. Woods argues the United States and the world are less safe than when the war began.
He cites the Center for American Progress on household costs of about $1,200 through July and about $2,200 through October, and says the burden falls far harder on typical earners than on millionaires and billionaires. He also points to more than 20 US military dead and nearly a thousand wounded, and quotes Trump as saying, “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation,” and, “not even a little bit.”