What would you do if someone had a button that could destroy the earth and they were walking across the room to push it? Would you stand in the way? Would you talk them out of it? Would you sit by and watch, maybe make a sarcastic remark or two? What if the button might destroy the earth or might just destroy part of it? What if it might leave most of the earth intact but kill millions of people, but what if you had no way of being sure how far the destruction would spread?
Here is an animation made by the Union of Concerned Scientists on the damage a strike on Iran would likely cause, including the death of three million people.
Here is a New York Times article on what would likely happen next, including a war at least regional in scope and involving the United States.
The information used in the animation above and reported by the New York Times as well comes from that peacenik hippie source of antiwar propaganda: the Pentagon, the same institution that says Iran has no nuclear weapons program.
Here's a lot more information on what attacking Iran would involve.
United for Peace and Justice has created a place where we can pledge not to sit by and watch: http://iranpledge.org
Here's the pledge:
"If the United States applies increased sanctions, invades, bombs, sends combat troops or drones, or otherwise significantly escalates its intervention in Iran or the region directly or through support of its allies, I pledge to join with others to engage in acts of legal protest and/or nonviolent civil disobedience to prevent or halt the death and destruction which U.S. military actions would cause to the people of Iran, the Middle East, our communities at home, and the planet itself."
When you take the pledge you can choose to commit to legal protest (is protesting still legal? who knew?) or nonviolent civil resistance (or "disobedience"). I encourage you to do both: http://iranpledge.org
Samantha Miller of Military Families Speak Out, who helped organize the pledge, told me, "Ten years of war have taken a serious toll on service members and their families. Frequent deployments and lack of access to mental health care have left military communities in a precarious situation, with 18 veterans committing suicide every day. We need to end the war in Afghanistan and take care of our veterans, not start new wars."
Medea Benjamin, cofounder Code Pink and Global Exchange, said "Right now, our government is hearing from the 1 percent who are gunning for a war with Iran. We, the 99%, must raise our voices and let our government know just how profoundly committed we are to stopping another catastrophic war. That's why I'm taking the pledge."
Imagine if 99 percent of us, or even 10 percent of us, took this pledge and followed through. We would prevent this war and every other war to come. War would be a thing of the past.
If we do not act, our species could end up becoming the thing of the past.
Let's choose survival and peace.
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