By Brandon Gonzales

With the recent conflict between the U.S. and Iran escalating to a martial level, there has been much debate concerning the role that the U.S. should play in world relations

Should the U.S. act as the policemen of the world, or should we keep our hands out of foreign affairs entirely?

To my exasperation, our nation has spent much of its history meddling in global politics and plunging our young soldiers into battle with little sound justification. This includes our conflict with Iran, which began when we tried  to initiate a regime change in 1953. 

At the time, the Iranian people had elected Mohammed Mossaddegh as their 35th prime minister. After his effort to nationalize Iran’s petroleum fields, thereby removing Great Britain’s personnel from Iran and allowing the Iranian government to keep most of its natural resources, the U.S. was asked by Britain to get involved.

Britain was greatly flustered by Mossaddegh’s effort to restore Iran’s natural resources to his people because Britain would lose its decades-long possession of Iran’s petroleum, which brought in $500,000,000 a year according to a New York Times article published in 1951. Britain was also worried that Iran would not generate enough money on their own to pay them their dues, escalating their effort to remove Iran’s elected prime minister and impose the Shah.

NPR writes of President Roosevelt’s response to Britain’s call for aid: Roosevelt quickly seized control of the Iranian press by buying them off with bribes and circulating anti-Mossadegh propaganda… he convinced the shah that Mossadegh was a threat. The last step entailed a dramatic attempt to apprehend Mossadegh at his house in the middle of the night.”

After Roosevelt’s initial plan failed, his second effort to complete the coup d’etat was successful, resulting in the termination of Iran’s democracy and the imposition of the Shah until the Iranian Revolution in 1979. 

It is almost unthinkable for me to consider that the world’s greatest democracy would terminate another democracy, remove the elected prime minister and impose a vicious monarchy in the name of money.

With the history of the U.S. meddling in Iranian affairs in mind, how is it that our president deemed the assassination of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani appropriate? 

Soleimani was a proven threat to the U.S., which Trump used in his defense of Soleimani’s assassination. However, I am not convinced this was justification for nearly starting a war with a nuclear state.

In light of these attacks, Iran launched ballistic missiles toward a nearby U.S. military base. The Iranian government let Iraq and the U.S. know they were attempting a strike, allowing our troops to perform defensive procedures. 

The Grand Ayatollah’s move proved to be an excellent tactic since he was able to disseminate propaganda convincing his citizens they had caused the U.S. to retreat, thus easing his nation’s fury.

Trump then backed away and said he would stop attacks, merely placing sanctions on Iran for committing their acts of retaliation. The president was lucky he did not cause an unfathomable war with Iran.

President Trump’s actions against Iran commenced nearly a year ago after he pulled out of the Iran Nuclear Deal and re-imposed sanctions on the nation, allowing Iran to crawl back to threatening levels of nuclear fuel production.

Even though tensions are defusing, I believe Iran may be in a state of motivation to increase their nuclear power, likely leading to a deadlier conflict in the coming years. 

The U.S. and Israel bombed Iran’s facilities when Iran had such nuclear capabilities last time. This bombing led to Iran multiplying their nuclear power and threatening both Israel and the U.S. with war if they struck again.

We need to answer this question: Do we want to send American troops into war with a potentially nuclear military? Would battling against Iran be a wise decision for protecting both our troops and children? 

We need to revert back to negotiating with Iran and ensuring that we have inspectors from other nations involved in this agreement checking on Iran’s nuclear fuel production. Negotiating, as opposed to bombing their generals and thus having their citizens cry “Death to America,” will surely prove to be a move that protects our beloved soldiers and citizens.

The death toll of the Iraq War, according to a 2018 report from the Washington Post, is incalculable. Why risk so many American lives for yet another preposterous war? 

The U.S. needs to halt its policing and meddling in the Middle East. “It is not enough to say, ‘Someday, we’re going to get out!’” exclaimed Sen. Elizabeth Warren during the Democratic Presidential Debate on Tuesday, Jan. 14. 

Our efforts in the Middle East have not always been made in righteous motive, nor been effective to any extent. We need to take immediate action, or risk having countless lives destroyed in the name of execrable, aimless war.