In a recent post, I shared thoughts from an Iranian refugee, still in limbo in Indonesia, about the United State’s foreign policy regarding his home country.   His thoughts and ideas got me thinking and I couldn’t help researching the issue a little more.

My main interest in looking into the issue was to figure out WHY.  Why are we pulling out of the nuclear weapons deal and reinstating sanctions?

In all of the speeches, interviews, and explanations about the policy with Iran that I’ve listened to or read, it seems the current administration’s main reason for pulling out of the weapons deal comes down to the idea that Iran can’t be trusted.

Already I have two problems with that argument and the current course of action.  For one, shouldn’t we wait for real evidence of non-compliance before pulling the plug on the deal?  Shouldn’t we have some kind of proof that it’s all a farce – other than the fact that Iran “can’t be trusted”.

The second problem I have with that is, uh, that’s exactly why we started the deal in the first place — because we can’t trust Iran to stop making nuclear weapons just out of the goodness of their hearts.

Okay, so fine, if Iran can’t be trusted, which it seems we established decades ago, and we want to pull the plug, here’s another question.  What message are we sending to the other countries who worked with us on this deal (Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China) by simply walking away? I mean, it’s pretty amazing that we managed to get so many partners working together (especially Russia and China) to keep Iran nuclear free. What? And just throw all of that away? Why?

Then I started hearing another buzz word surrounding the conversations about Iran….

… Israel.

While listening to an interview with the new National Security advisor, John Bolton, about the situation in Iran, he mentioned something about Iranian drones along the borders of Israel (coming in through Syria) – as if it were significant to our relationship with Iran.

There are a variety of opinions out there about our relationship with Israel, and the United States has had an enormous hand in ensuring the establishment of that state.  But at some point I wonder how much more of our help they really need?  Aren’t they capable of handling their own foreign affairs?

Let’s face it, Iran is one of the last powers in the region that stands to threaten Israel.  Almost every other major threat has been neutralized, some which we have helped neutralize directly, like Iraq.

And what just happened on Monday? We transformed a regular American consulate into our official US Embassy in Jerusalem, sealing our position and recognizing Israel’s ownership of the Holy City – which is not globally held to be true.  Several months ago I shared my thoughts about Jerusalem, acknowledging its long history and the major religions who have staked a claim.

Some would say all of this is the result of the efforts of lobbyists in Washington who have worked very hard to keep money flowing into Israel and foreign policy in line with that nation’s safety.  As of 2016, we just signed another major military aid deal, “the biggest pledge of its kind in American history”.

But here’s what really concerns me.

After the horrible events of September 11th we were devastated, angry, and vulnerable.  Going off of very little information, we gave our military the go-ahead to invade Iraq without support from the United Nations.  The result was hundreds of thousands more lives lost and all we did was neutralize rusted, dismantled weapons from the 1980’s.

I feel like politicians are trying to work us back up into an angry frenzy to do it all again, this time to invade Iran.  Are we headed for another horrific event?  Are we going to be fed half-truths and non-verified facts to give us “reasons” to declare war on Iran?   We apparently already have a problem with “fake news”.

Worse still is the fact that we already don’t listen to each other.  Republicans and Democrats seem to have gone completely deaf to anything except their own concerns.  The only thing that seems to concern either side is gaining a majority in Congress.  And the common approach to winning more seats is to go further and further away from the center.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to repeat history.