“If We Just K*ll a Few More Bad Guys We’ll Have Peace”

Hey friends,

Interrupting your regularly scheduled newsletter for a quick dispatch from the depths of existential dread.

It started on Thursday. A friend texted me:

“Do you think Israel is going to bomb Iran?”

Here is the actual screenshot of my response

One hour later:

I responded again…. Yeah I’m wrong, Israel is bombing Iran.

It only got worse from there.

And I don’t just mean the trading of missiles in civilian centers by Israel and the Islamic Republic of Iran. I mean the deluge of opinions that I consumed from my own family and the diaspora at large. You see, there’s a blood thirst among many Iranians to see the regime officials face justice - righteous justice. They’ve kidnapped the people of Iran for over 45 years, subjected them to gender apartheid, destroyed their economy, eroded their culture and history - all for a fantastical idea that they can spread their flavor of Islam around the world.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but here’s a snippet from Amnesty International’s write-up on what happened to an Iranian dissident rapper who was arrested by the Iranian regime and subjected to torture… for MAKING MUSIC (Trigger Warning… Torture):

An informed source told Amnesty International that agents subjected Toomaj Salehi various methods of torture and other ill-treatment including pouring water over him and giving electric shocks to his feet; holding a gun to his head and threatening to kill and bury him in a hole they dug in the ground; stomping on his chest; smashing his leg between a car door; and leaving him with an eye injury affecting his eyesight. While briefly released on bail in November 2023, Toomaj Salehi publicly said agents injected him with an unidentified substance in his neck.

So I can see why people I’m close to want to rid the country of these violent religious fascists. But at what cost? Who should be the one to do it? There are others, like myself, who feel incredibly conflicted by this. While there is some respite knowing that some of these officials are gone, so too are their neighbors that lived in the residential buildings that were “surgically” bombed. Children are dying again at the hands of the Israeli government, and their country is having to pay for this aggression as well with the lives of their own innocent people as well.

I was 18 when 9/11 happened and since then Republican and Democrats have gotten on TV telling me that “If we can k*ll a few more bad guys we’ll have peace.”

“To protect America we need to k*ll the people that are trying to kill us…”

“Saddam Hussein is a threat”

“Osama Bin Ladan attacked us and we will find him..”

“The Taliban must go and this surge of troops will be our big push to do it”

Are all of these people bad? Yes. But is it worth the blood and treasure of our people. Is Israel’s sense of security worth the thousands of lives lost in Gaza?

I have not seen peace in my entire adulthood. But I have seen people go bankrupt from a healthcare bill. I’ve seen a veteran suicide rate of 17 per day. I’ve seen friends with good jobs unable to afford a home. Somehow though we always manage to find the money for weapons, and bombs, and more bombs.

Peace through strength. Here we are again.

My hope is that the President’s selfish need for vanity and self-dealing will make him demand an end to this war. Because bombs are bad for golf courses and high-rises. But I’m not an expert, just a guy trying to learn how the world works by swallowing the internet everyday.

Ok that’s it for now. Check-in on your Iranian friends and let them express how they feel - maybe this letter will help you understand the variety of responses you will get.

And if you feel so inclined, we would appreciate it if you could share this with your friends and family.