Non-hawks speak out

Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) and Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC) have coauthored a letter to President Obama cautioning against any rush to war.    With the impending visit tomorrow of Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu, this is very timely.

Here is the text of the letter, which has been endorsed by a liberal and peace groups:

“What the President has to tell the Israeli leadership is: ‘Look, if you’re going to sign us up for a protracted military conflict that you can start but cannot finish, we’ve got to be in on it from the beginning.  And we say diplomacy is what we need to do now…The United States, the strongest military on Earth, should never be in a position where it is not in control of its own destiny.  The fact is, we cannot let even an ally, an important ally like Israel, drag us into war that we think diplomacy can serve better in.”

Rep. Ellison also commented that “We just got out of one war, we’re trying to get out of another one, we do not need a third…diplomacy is the right option. . . .  No one says diplomacy is easy, but going to war would be catastrophic."

Ellison also said that many Israeli generals and military experts also believe “an attack on Iran would be destabilizing for them and the wrong way to go.”  And, as I noted in a comment to yesterday's post, a poll of Israeli people found that only 19% support a military strike against Iran without U.S. support and 42% support a strike with U. S. support.

In addition, our Joint Chief of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey says that the Iranian leadership is rational in its international dealings and that they can be negotiated with.  That is not to say that they are always truthful or forthcoming but that they are not wild, crazy people who would act rashly.   Every move, every statement they make is carefully calculated for its effect.   That, in itself, is more hopeful than if we were dealing with a crazy despot like Kaddhafi.

Of course, the hawks disagree and warn that we cannot risk an irrational move from the Iranians.

Ralph