Dear MoveOn member,
It has to be said and there's no sugar-coating it: Donald Trump is on a path toward war. And he just took his most dangerous step yet.
Today, Trump announced that he will violate President Obama's historic diplomatic agreement with Iran by unilaterally imposing sanctions on the Iranian people.1 This action undermines a deal that was painstakingly negotiated by six countries—and it's a disaster for diplomacy. It puts the U.S. closer to engaging in another war in the Middle East and sends a global message that Trump does not respect—and will not support—America's agreements with other nations. Trump's decision is already being called "possibly the greatest deliberate act of self-harm and self-sabotage in geo-strategic politics in the modern era."2
President Obama told MoveOn members that our strong support for the Iran deal made a huge difference. Now that Trump has backed out of the deal, we need to work harder than ever to resist Trump's warmaking and prevent a disastrous, unthinkable Trump-led war.
This is a huge undertaking that will last as long as Trump's presidency, and we're dedicating resources to it while also ramping up a massive electoral program to end GOP control of Congress, which is why we urgently need your help.
Will you pitch in $3 now to invest in MoveOn's anti-war campaigning and organizing, while continuing to support all the other crucial work that we're doing?
In his statement today, Trump all but called for war with Iran, and offered no coherent explanation for why he was exiting the deal—using rhetoric reminiscent of the lead-up to the Iraq War. He made ominous statements: "The United States no longer makes empty threats. When I make promises, I keep them," and threatened that Iran "will have bigger problems than it has ever had before."3
The withdrawal from the Iran deal is only the latest step on Trump's warpath. Let's look at Trump's other recent actions:
- He pushed out Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who had supported diplomacy—replacing him with Mike Pompeo, an Islamaphobic warmonger, who has opposed the Iran deal from the start and has shown no appetite for peace and diplomacy as America's chief diplomat.
- He tapped John Bolton, a war hawk who peddled propaganda to push America into the devastating Iraq War and recently wrote an article about the case for war with North Korea, to be his national security adviser.
- He launched an ill-conceived missile strike against Syria—without a larger strategy for ameliorating civilian suffering in that bloody civil war—and was only restrained from the larger strike he hungered for by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.
- He has repeatedly talked and tweeted of wanting to escalate the situation with North Korea, including giving North Korea a "bloody nose"—leading many experts to worry that he's setting up the talks with North Korea to fail and positioning war as the only alternative.
- He's demanding that the Pentagon plan a military parade for him in the nation's capital.
If you look at all of Trump's actions and rhetoric together, you'll see a man assembling a war Cabinet, laying the groundwork to roll out military action, and hungry to push our nation into combat.
Add to that the fact that Trump is a man with aggrandized notions of his own worth, a penchant for provocation and bullying on Twitter, and a record of pushing out advisers who disagree with him, and we have the recipe for disaster.
The only thing standing between Trump and a war is our grassroots activism and what happens at the ballot boxes this November to change Congress. Which is why we at MoveOn are asking for your help. Will you pitch in $3?
For more than 20 years, MoveOn members have resisted war. We helped lead the fight to oppose the war in Iraq. That work was fuel for our electoral work in 2006 and helped create a Democratic sweep of the U.S. House of Representatives. Then, we supported Barack Obama in the 2008 Democratic primary, setting the stage for de-escalation. Under President Obama, we led the fight to pass the Iran deal—and then worked our hearts out to defend it.
Now, we face what may be our greatest challenge: helping stop another war while getting ready to put a check on Trump and his administration. We need to build an electoral program strong enough that even an "October surprise" isn't enough for Trump to keep control of the House and press forward with his radical agenda. It's a lot to do all at once, and we really need your help.
Will you invest $3 in a huge undertaking to call out Trump's march along his warpath, resist military escalation, and prepare to prevent a new war—while we also build an election program powerful enough that that Trump isn't able to use a war to keep Republicans in power this November?
Thanks for all you do.
–Anna, Brian, Jayne, Schuyler, and the rest of the team
P.S. We can speculate about today's decision and Trump's insatiable appetite for war: Was it to deflect from sagging poll numbers and legal troubles at home; to prepare for an "October surprise" that could affect the midterm elections and save his agenda; to feed the voracious macho militarism of a man who fantasizes about being a "war president?" Or maybe he's just paranoid and foolish enough to think that war is the answer regardless of the question.
But speculating about Trump's motives is not the most important act right now—it's far more important that we recognize what Trump and his war-hungry advisers are doing, and even more critical that we do all that we can to resist and be prepared to confront a massive Trump-led war.
If we wait until Trump's plans are clear, it will be too late. Will you pitch in $3 now to help MoveOn resist Trump's warmaking and be ready to confront his efforts to launch an all-out war?
Sources:
1. "Trump will announce plans to pull out of Iran nuclear deal despite pleas from European leaders," The Washington Post, May 8, 2018
https://act.moveon.org/go/39038?t=6&akid=206093%2E10220574%2Elb8Bqf
2. "Trump announces that the U.S. will withdraw from the Iran deal," The Week, May 8, 2018
https://act.moveon.org/go/39058?t=8&akid=206093%2E10220574%2Elb8Bqf
3. "Read the Full Transcript of Trump's Speech on the Iran Nuclear Deal," The New York Times, May 8, 2018
https://act.moveon.org/go/39049?t=10&akid=206093%2E10220574%2Elb8Bqf
Want to support our work? The MoveOn community will work every moment, day by day and year by year, to resist Trump's agenda, contain the damage, defeat hate with love, and begin the process of swinging the nation's pendulum back toward sanity, decency, and the kind of future that we must never give up on. And to do it we need your support, now more than ever. Will you stand with us?
Click here to chip in $3, or whatever you can afford.
PAID FOR BY MOVEON
This email was sent to Eddie Alfaro on May 8th, 2018. To change your email address or update your contact info, click here. To remove yourself from this list, click here.
No comments:
Post a Comment