Comments
ALPERN AT LARGE - Is it possible to both dislike, disrespect, and even despise President Trump and yet recognize that if Iran gets nuclear bomb capability that we definitely WILL see bombs go off in our lifetime?
It’s certainly one thing to resent the daylights about that bombastic Orange Man in the White House, but it’s another thing to want nuclear bombs to explode in the Middle East, and then in Europe and in our own nation.
Because we’re dealing with a cult of death who are the closest thing to a “real” Nazi-like regimen in our lifetime, which is the Iranian regime Israel and the West have confronted (or failed to confront) for decades.
If you want to proclaim that Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are the “real Hitlers”, that’s your right, although I’ve yet to see lines of hundreds of thousands of people shipped to their death in cattle cars for execution via poison gas in either the U.S., Israel, Gaza, or Lebanon.
But if it’s presumed that Donald Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu, and folks like Elon Musk and others (such as historical figures like Winston Churchill) are bombastic egotists who were appreciated only when things got so dire that we needed someone who had the gumption to say and do what others just couldn’t…
…then we have to really ask ourselves whether Iran could ever, ever, EVER be trusted to have “the bomb” and not be likely to use it.
Or maybe just blackmail the world to get rid of Israel and swear loyalty to Iran or “someone will get it for sure”. Israel has the bomb, most likely…but is Israel swaggering around threatening to use it?
Or does Israel just call civilians before targeting a military installation cowardly and cruelly hiding behind, and embedding with, these civilians to urge them to escape to minimize civilian casualties?
Does Israel want war with all of their enemies, or did they give up virtually all of the land Egypt once owned (including Gaza) in an attempt to make peace with their neighbors? (The Golan Heights are needed for defensive purposes, but the West Bank still has local autonomy in the hopes that maybe IT can be a future Palestine).
And does Israel want to make war, or make financial ties with its neighbors (think the Abraham Accords)?
On a similar note, now that Israel is taking out the nuclear, non-nuclear, and political military capabilities of Iran, do we suspect that Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, and the other Arab and European nations with solid ties to the U.S. are privately angry…
…or absolutely 1000% relieved that Israel is doing the dirty work no one else wanted to do?
Why did former President G.W. Bush attack Iraq before Iran? Probably a personal vendetta against Saddam Hussein and some neocon desire to “democratize the Middle East” in a failed “Arab Spring”…but it empowered and embolded Iran’s theocratic exporters of terrorism worldwide.
Why did former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden offer all sorts of financial incentives to get Iran to slow down uranium enrichment, when it was obvious Iran was playing them? Probably an attempt to show kindness and compromise in a pattern consistent with the United Nations’ efforts…
…but like the U.N., the North Koreans and Iranian mullahs don’t really give a rip or value true compromise or negotiations. We see negotiation and compromise as strength, while they view that as weakness. Pity.
But “NO” really has to mean “NO”.
Iran’s religious theocracy is hated by Iranian expats worldwide, and feared by its people. Maybe regime change will occur, and maybe it won’t (although it would be nice to see Iran rejoin the world as a neighbor, and not a rogue nation).
But we just cannot let Iran have “The Bomb”. And they want it. They want it real bad.
And what WE want may differ from one group of Americans to another, but I’m pretty sure we’ll agree on one thing:
We do NOT want nuclear bombs going off in an American city, a European capitol, or any location on Planet Earth ever, ever, ever again.
(Kenneth S. Alpern, M.D, is a dermatologist who has served in clinics in Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside Counties, and is a proud husband and father. He was active for 20 years on the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC) as a Board Member focused on Planning and Transportation, and helped lead the grassroots efforts of the Expo Line as well as connecting LAX to MetroRail. His latest project is his fictional online book entitled The Unforgotten Tales of Middle-Earth, and can be reached at[email protected]. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Dr. Alpern.)
