Sen. Richard Black: I do not want more Americans dying for Saudi Arabia
Senator of Virginia, Richard H. Black has appealed to the U.S. president Donald Trump to end wars of regime change and not to shed more blood to advance the foreign policy of the brutal Saudi dictatorship.
In a letter he sent to President Trump -on May 22, 2019- regarding war against Iran, the senator said: “It was Saudis—not Iranians—who dispatched 19 al Qaeda terrorists to crash jets into the Pentagon and Twin Towers on 9-11. I do not want more Americans dying for Saudi Arabia; 3000 already paid that price on 9-11. We must not shed more blood to advance the foreign policy of the brutal Saudi dictatorship.”
He affirmed that he opposes the war against Iran.
“The notion that Iran intends to attack the U.S. is utterly absurd. I was dismayed that John Bolton convened your cabinet secretaries and key advisors at CIA headquarters, apparently to devise a pretext for war. Suddenly DOD, which balked at sending 5,000 troops to defend our own borders, had earmarked 120,000 troops to attack the Iranian people.”
Sen. Black added: “I find the constant sabre rattling and efforts to ignite a war against Iran deeply troubling. I voted for you, but I did not elect John Bolton. I was alarmed when you chose him as the NSA, since he was a key architect of our regime change war in Iraq.”
He reminded the president that America had elected him to end wars of regime change and to lower tensions.
“You campaigned on ending wars of regime change, and I supported you for that and other reasons. However, John Bolton and Mike Pompeo are orchestrating a new conflict that could easily kill a million Iranians, leaving that country in poverty and chaos. We have already spread death and destruction across the Middle East and North Africa, and we have killed or maimed tens of thousands of courageous American troops while doing so; this pointless bloodshed must stop,” Sen. Black clarified.
There is no public support for a war against Iran
He emphasized that John Bolton has usurped President Trump’s authority as Commander-in-Chief and he countermanded the president’s order for an immediate withdrawal from Syria, and now he has alarmed U.S. allies by agitating for war against Iran.
“It was reported that you hope to avoid war with Iran. But the CINC does not “hope. He commands. He does not delegate war making to his staff,” the Senator added, stressing that Saudi Arabia has called on Americans to attack Iran on their behalf.
“I neither serve nor respect Saudi Arabia. Recently, the Crown Prince reportedly dispatched a team of assassins who tortured, suffocated, and dismembered Washington Post journalist, Jamal Khashoggi. Last month, Saudi Arabia beheaded 37 men (mostly minority Shiites) in a mass execution. And just last week, in the capital of Riyadh, a Filipino woman was tied to a tree in the blazing sun as punishment for a trivial housekeeping mistake. Saudis treat women like dogs; nine women who encouraged the government to allow women to drive, were imprisoned and tortured for doing so,” he stressed in his letter.
Sen. Black affirmed that no Iranian, no Shia Muslim—has ever committed a terror attack on American soil. “It is Saudi Arabia, with its violent Wahhabi religious cult, that is the principal instigator of global terror. Wahhabi religious tenets undergird every major terror attack on the United States since 9-11.”
He concluded by saying: “there is no public support for a war against Iran. I am concerned that the Republican Party will suffer historic electoral losses in 2020 if we launch an attack on Iran…I support you, and I want you to succeed. Please do not abandon your solemn commitment to America.”
The Senator served as a colonel in the Office of the Judge Advocate General at the Pentagon and once exercised military justice authority over the Middle East and North Africa. Also, as a Marine officer, He was wounded during fierce fighting in Vietnam. It is from those perspectives that he wrote the letter obtained by the Syria Times e-newspaper.
Basma Qaddour