How to Avoid War

I’ve been watching television a lot lately and I’ve been seeing a lot of political pundits talking about how they think President Bush is trying to instigate a war with Iran. They say he is “saber rattling.” First of all an example of saber rattling to me is when you say publicly that Israel should be wiped off the map or when you force everyone listening to your speech to chant “Death to America.” That’s saber rattling. Giving speeches about how Iran should not have a nuclear bomb and pointing out their human rights abuses is not. That’s just telling the truth.

Anyway, I really don’t want to go to war with Iran. That would be a huge problem. I heard one pundit, I think from Air America, say that if “You like the war in Iraq, you’ll love the war in Iran.” Here’s how we can avoid war with Iran.

1. Imagine we do go to war with Iran and that it’s just like the war with Iraq if not worse.
2. Imagine how upset that would make you.
3. Then imagine how much protesting you’d do, speaking out against the war, boycotting, sanctions you’d be for, and voting for officials against the war.
4. Then take all that energy from things listed in step 3 and actually, right now, protest the dictatorship in Iran, speak out against the regime in Iran, boycott companies that do business with Iran, encourage sanctions against Iran, vote for representatives that support democracy in Iran, and generally just support the peaceful switch of Iran to a democracy.

If 10% of all the people who would protest a war with Iran would do those things we won’t have to go to war with Iran in the first damn place.

Note: You can replace “Iran” with any dictatorship in the steps mentioned above.