The Senator's letter

As I wrote other times in the past, the election of Donald Trump to the highest American political office has been accompanied by great hopes of change. Not only in terms of domestic politics and economy, but also in international terms. Many hoped, and still hope now, that Trump would have closed the season of proxy wars, regime changes achieved through psyco-police style interferences, continuous and bitter diplomatic clashes with Russia. Unfortunately, the current situation does not seem to evolve along the hoped directions. Not only Trump is continually opposed by a miserable intelligentsia (to put it in the Russian language) belonging to the faded American left, but the incredible hoax of a Trump as Kremlin agent, then infiltrated and treacherous under Putin's orders, blocked the new administration for more than two years. The Muller report, which exonerates Trump of the accusations, did not resolve complitely this impasse and many problems, that could have already been solved, still remain.

The Senator's letter. 63606.jpeg

Moreover, people like Bolton and Pompeo, always considered warmongers, have been nominated in key positions. The recent hostility against China (however, predictable from the electoral campaign) and unfortunately the new one against the Iran have joined the old hostility towards Russia.

About the ayatollahs in Tehran, it is reasonable to ask whether Trump is only ill-advised by his entourage or if he's following a personal inclination or inevitably if he's trying to pay a debt with the Jewish lobby to which he owes, according to some rumors, being exonerated from the charge of treason. Exonerated from the charge, but still absurdly at risk of impeachment. We cannot give a precise answer but we can in any case to affirm, without fear of being contradicted, that a war against Iran would be frighteningly expensive in terms of human lives and material damage. Both sides would be in the grip of a condition, alas, cathartic but the Americans would be the invading enemies and the Iranians those who defend themselves as attacked: they would fight like tigers for their homes, their fathers, their mothers, wives and children. Iran is an ancient country whose people have roots that date back to ancient empires. Why should they surrender without charging the highest possible price?

These and other thoughts must agitated the mind and soul of Senator Richard Black, Virginia State Senate, to the point of pushing him to an action clear and defined as in his style. A man of great moral rigor and clear patriotism, once Colonel of the Marines and Purple Heart in Vietnam, Black wrote to President Trump a letter [1] that I repost here.

"Dear Mr. President:

I served as a colonel in the Office of the Judge Advocate General at the Pentagon and once exercised military justice authority over the Middle East and North Africa. Also, as a Marine officer, I was wounded during fierce fighting in Vietnam. It is from those perspectives that I write this letter.

I find the constant sabre rattling and efforts to ignite a war against Iran deeply troubling. I voted for you, but I did not elect John Bolton. I was alarmed when you chose him as the NSA, since he was a key architect of our regime change war in Iraq.

I oppose the war against Iran. The notion that Iran intends to attack the U.S. is utterly absurd. I was dismayed that John Bolton convened your cabinet secretaries and key advisors at CIA headquarters, apparently to devise a pretext for war. Suddenly DoD, which balked at sending 5,000 troops to defend our own borders, had earmarked 120,000 troops to attack the Iranian people.

John Bolton has usurped your authority as Commander-in-Chief. He countermanded your order for an immediate withdrawal from Syria, and now he has alarmed our allies by agitating for war against Iran. It was reported that you hope to avoid war with Iran. But the CINC does not "hope". He commands. He does not delegate war-making to his staff.

Saudi Arabia has called on Americans to attack Iran on their behalf. But I neither serve nor respect Saudi Arabia. Recently, the Crown Prince reportedly dispatched a team of assassins who tortured, suffocated, and dismembered Washington Post journalist, Jamal Khashoggi. Last month, Saudi Arabia beheaded 37 men (mostly minority Shiites) in a mass execution. And just last week, in the capital of Riyadh, a Filipino woman was tied to a tree in the blazing sun as punishment for a trivial housekeeping mistake. Saudis treat women like dogs; nine women who encouraged the government to allow women to drive, were imprisoned and tortured for doing so.

No Iranian - and to my knowledge, no Shia Muslim - has ever committed a terror attack on American soil. It is Saudi Arabia, with its violent Wahhabi religious cult, that is the principal instigator of global terror. Wahhabi religious tenets undergird every major terror attack on the United States since 9-11.

It was Saudis - not Iranians - who dispatched 19 al Qaeda terrorists to crash jets into the Pentagon and Twin Towers on 9-11. I do not want more Americans dying for Saudi Arabia; 3000 already paid that price on 9-11. We must not shed more blood to advance the foreign policy of the brutal Saudi dictatorship.

You campaigned on ending wars of regime change, and I supported you for that and other reasons. However, John Bolton and Mike Pompeo are orchestrating a new conflict that could easily kill a million Iranians, leaving that country in poverty and chaos. We have already spread death and destruction across the Middle East and North Africa, and we have killed or maimed tens of thousands of courageous American troops while doing so; this pointless bloodshed must stop.

America elected you to end wars of regime change and to lower tensions. Our nation is war-weary; there is no public support for a war against Iran. I am concerned that the Republican Party will suffer historic electoral losses in 2020 if we launch an attack on Iran.

I support you, and I want you to succeed. Please do not abandon your solemn commitment to America.

This letter dates back to May 22 and for the moment it is not known whether President Trump has responded. Yet, Richard Black's words bring out all the difficulties and inconsistencies of the current American administration. Even its weaknesses: the Commander in Chief does not "hope" but commands, Black reminds to Trump. Who has always been a hard businessman, accustomed to being instantly obeyed and quick to fire all those who did not do a good job, this badass Trump is now unable to be obeyed by his subordinates at the White House, which not only choose the orders to obey but also usurp his authority even by establishing new policies.

Richard Black has the courage and the honesty to recognize that Tehran never made a terrorist attack on American soil, reserving his blame not on Iran but on Saudi Arabia. The social customs of the country ruled by the House of Saud, the ruthless but at the same time happy determination with which the Saudis take the life of their opponents, women treated as dogs, the 19 citizens of the Kingdom who participated in the attacks of the September 11, in fact the totality of the terrorists, all this has never damaged the diplomatic relations with Washington.

This senseless bloodshed, whose effects have hit also the American society, must stop. It has. But will it be? Senator Black writes driven by a sense of duty but we face an unknown factor and this unknown lies not in the words of Richard Black, a true loyal patriot, but in how many people like him still there are in America today.

[1] Here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1n9lTd4FBsXJl2nRtCNsPNS6bWrYcRr67/view?usp=sharing

****************

Costantino Ceoldo - Pravda freelance