Well, here we are in the middle of a sort of series, thinking about our future food supply, right here in early March, when we can at least imagine spring being just around the corner, when all of a sudden, the US attacks Iran. So, where do we go with this space today? What do I want to write about? What do you want to read about?
A really good case could be made to suggest that the war in Iran, regardless of what happens at the end of it, isn’t going to put any peas on our plates, so let’s carry on with gardening. And who in our part of small-town British Columbia cares about what goes on in the Middle East anyway?
Sure, a good case could be made.
But not a good enough one.
Really? What a warmonger I must be!
So let me make my case for what we’re going to talk about here by asking you if the two atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki that ended World War II meant anything to you? Because they meant a huge amount to me! This might sound foolish to you, but it sure isn’t to me.
I was born in 1946. August. And if you want to put the paper down for a minute while you write my birthday on your calendar, that’s okay. The 14th.
And here’s my tale.
I was born in August of ’46, but that isn’t when life started for me. Life started for me in November of ’45, probably around the middle of the month. That was Conception Day for me. And what was going on in the world right about then? Yes, the second war had just ended. The world was at peace. And if there is a better time to have another kid, it has to be a time when the world is at peace, not a time when it’s at war.
Listen to this. In 1944, there were 284,220 kids born in Canada. In 1945, there were 288,700 births, an increase of 4,480. But watch what happened in 1946: there were 343,504 kids born, an increase of 54,804. The war had ended with Japan on September 2, 1945. Go figure!
It’s not preposterous to think that if the war hadn’t ended, then I might never have been born! This column might have been written by some old guy born in ’44, or a youngster born in ’48.
So the end of WWII possibly means more to me than it does to you!
And the message is that people like peace; they don’t like war. And WWII wouldn’t have ended when it did without those two atomic bombs. And this world would never been free of war had Iran continued to develop their nuclear arsenal.
So, going from that, was Trump right to bomb Iran?
Of course, he was.
And now he should finish the job. This war shouldn’t be over until every last bullet, every last gun and every last missile launcher has been destroyed in Iran.
Not everyone will see it this way, and that’s good too. It’s always good to have more than one perspective on an issue, especially one as important as war. I wish the Russian people had more say in whether or not their country should have undertaken its war with Ukraine.
And I’m very sure that the Iranian people, had they had any say in the course their government has taken in recent years, would have been opposed to what Iran has done.
Iran has much of the world’s oil reserves and could have given its people very good lives, but it wasted much of its riches on needless military and terrorist ventures.
We hear a lot of nonsense on TV these days, I’m sure, but I don’t think the countless times that we have heard Iran referred to as the world’s largest sponsor of terrorism is untrue. The Middle East would have been a much different place over the last forty years if Iran had minded its own business.
I am very convinced that if Iran had been left to develop its own nuclear warheads and missiles with which to deliver them, we would have seen many more 9/11s, and they would have been much worse, far worse, than the 9-11 that played out on our TV screens in 2001.
So someone needed to deal with Iran, and it was pretty clear that it was only the US that would do so, and if we would call a spade a spade, it is likely only Donald Trump who had the backbone to do it.
Kamala Harris certainly wouldn’t have done it. Obama likely wouldn’t have either.
There are lots of things that Trump could do better. He could be a lot less rude, a lot less of a braggart. Less of a bully. But he has a spine, and the world today is better off because of it.
This Iranian situation is very similar to Adolph Hitler in the late 1930’s. The British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, thought that if the world just caved in to Hitler a little bit and let him take over some of Europe, he would be satisfied and stop his military ambitions.
It was called the doctrine of appeasement. Chamberlain had no backbone, and it took Winston Churchill to see through Hitler and have the fortitude to declare war on Germany.
We in Canada are likely going to express support for the US in doing what they have done. But we should do more. We should send them a ‘thank you’ card, and put a cheque in it for two or three billion dollars.
The bill for this Iran effort will be in the billions, and we’ll benefit from it just as much as the Americans will.
Because if Iran had been allowed to develop their nuclear arsenal they would have first attacked New York (yes, again), Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles and then, you never know, maybe Canada’s oil capital, Calgary.
There are many connections between Golden and Calgary. Even though we have kids, grandkids and one great-grandkid in Calgary. Maybe the cheque should be four or five billion.
Trump is often a boastful bully, but he was right on Iran this past weekend!
