To the editor: I totally agree that President Trump has only bad options in the Iran war (“Trump has left himself only bad options on Iran,” May 20). The problem is that Americans, along with most countries around the world, are footing the bill for his mistakes. Trump is like a drunken captain, and unfortunately we are passengers on his Titanic.
After tearing up the treaty that President Obama had signed with Iran, Trump followed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s lead in attacking Iran not once, but twice. The first time, he claimed that Iran’s nuclear program had been obliterated. That was obviously not true, hence the second attack.
The damage is already apparent in the tragic deaths of thousands of victims. Most people, however, are also concerned about the economic consequences, with prices rising and likely remaining high even after the war ends.
Friedrich Merz, Germany’s chancellor, has stated that the United States lacks a clear strategy and that Iran is humiliating us. That may or may not be true, but the real tragedy is that Americans and people around the globe continue to be hostages of a reckless captain steering the ship on which we are all sailing.
Domenico Maceri, San Luis Obispo
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To the editor: More war will do nothing to prevent nuclear weapons and will only worsen the global hunger crisis. Diplomacy is the only way to resolve the Iranian nuclear issue.
We need to get an agreement with Iran that gets inspectors back on the ground in the nuclear facilities. But we also really need to get agreements with the nations that have nuclear weapons, including Russia and China.
There are more than 12,000 nuclear weapons worldwide. Most of these weapons of mass destruction are held by the U.S. and Russia, with China third. Why not reduce nukes into the hundreds, moving toward the ultimate goal of their complete elimination?
Instead of nations wasting billions of dollars every year on nuclear weapons and wars, precious resources should be diverted to feed the hungry and reduce poverty.
We need to focus more on feeding the world’s hungry instead of building more weapons. There is so much suffering and instability in the world from hunger and conflict.
People in all nations could benefit from nuclear disarmament that leads to more funding for food and other aid.
William Lambers, Cincinnati, Ohio
This writer is an author who partnered with the U.N. World Food Program on the book “Ending World Hunger.”
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To the editor: Trump has issued what many believe is his irreducible demand of Iran: no nuclear weapon.
Perhaps he hasn’t noticed, but Iran doesn’t have nuclear weapons. The United States has them, and Israel is widely believed to have them as well. Iran has signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty; Israel hasn’t. Comparing Israel and Iran on a death and destruction scale is not favorable to Israel.
Iranians are often criticized with variants of insults calling them “crazy mullahs” who will immediately bomb Tel Aviv with a nuclear weapon if given the chance. Really? Israel and the United States have attacked and invaded far more than Iran has. So why are we obsessed with this single point? We might as well demand that Iran not blow up the moon.
Too often, Iran is portrayed as the monster we must keep chained in the basement, but it’s hardly the worst country in the world. Iran’s opponents deploy fanciful, frankly irrational “what-ifs” to justify their demands. Arguing “do you want Iran to have/to do x, y and z?” persuades only the fearful and ignorant.
Some continue to insist we must finish the job, meaning the Iran war. There is no job to finish. We need to immediately abandon a ghastly mistake.
“Iran evil” was a point mostly ignored by presidents until Trump. Time to let it go.
William N. Hoke, Manhattan Beach
