Gary Horton (commentary, April 22) continually fails to understand the underlying rationale behind our president’s attack on Iran, even as our president keeps saying Iran cannot be allowed to have nuclear weapons. Limiting Iran’s ability to use weapons of mass destruction is the primary reason to attack Iran. It was never about oil, the Strait of Hormuz, or any other self-indulgent reason. I support his actions because preventing Iran from killing thousands of people is an honorable cause.
Iran has proven to possess a lack of good judgement by attacking its neighbors. Donald Trump on the other hand did not take the same path as war planners did in World War II. He did not pattern-bomb cities and kill thousands of civilians. He is concerned about not putting the burden on the Iranian civilian population and American service members.
In this case, not only did he save the lives of Iranian citizens but also American soldiers. If you remember, when the allies invaded Europe with thousands of boots on the ground, it was paid for by thousands of casualties on both sides. Instead, in this case he attacked military installations and facilities producing military weapons.
Unfortunately, his next major target will have to be power generation facilities, which will put Iran in the dark. He has been reluctant to do it, but I think he’s going to have to. The Iranian government is playing him the same way as they did previous presidents by stalling, but this time, Trump will eventually get tired of waiting and he will put the lights out in Iran.
Perhaps Gary doesn’t understand how dangerous nuclear weapons are, but I do. Most of my career was during the Cold War in military aviation electronics. I felt very relieved when Ronald Reagan defeated the evil empire and the constant threat of nuclear war was averted. So, there’s no way we can allow Iran to possess that kind of power and put the world in that same situation again.
Gary, I don’t want thousands of people dying because Iran is allowed to have nuclear weapons. I know that if Iran would drop one on Israel, Israel would retaliate and that event might start a worldwide nuclear holocaust that would end all human life on this planet.
If I were to have a conversation with the president today, I would talk about the price of oil in the United States. If we are energy-independent and are exporting more oil than we use, why are we paying international prices? Seems to me, Congress could pass a bill limiting gasoline companies from exporting oil until all internal U.S. demands are met. They could also limit the amount of profit those companies could make on oil sold inside of the United States. That would drop the cost of oil dramatically at the pump. It was done previously to limit aerospace companies’ profits. Why hasn’t the same concept been used on oil?
Alan Ferdman
Canyon Country
