Never before in my lifetime have I witnessed a man who is hated by such a large number of people from around the world as Donald John Trump. To be honest, he has earned  complete disdain. His diminishing number of supporters share his beliefs in white supremacy, Islamophobia, Homophobia, and misogyny. These few American citizens are the only individuals Trump chooses to represent, and therefore cannot be accurately called President of the United States.

This story was a surprise. Trump’s open hatred and lack of respect for anyone who is not white, male, wealthy, a heterosexual, or a fake-Christian provokes good people to consider committing the worst acts imaginable.

So, when I learned that an Iranian lawmaker had placed a three-million-dollar bounty on Trump’s pitiful life; I was not surprised. Leaders of nations, religions, and corporations have been assassinated for far less egregious crimes against humanity.

“On behalf of the people of Kerman province, we will pay a $3 million reward in cash to whoever kills Trump,” Ahmad Hamzeh told the 290-seat parliament, according to Reuters, which cited the state-run ISNA news outlet.

Anyone who knows me is aware that I am a ‘pacifist.’ I do not believe in violence. Acts of revenge; taking the life of anyone to punish them for their crimes is barbaric. Wars make absolutely no sense. Nobody ‘wins’ a war. I need no more proof than America’s last three failures in South Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq.

First, the truth. There was no legitimate reason to wage war in any of these nations. To this day not a single member of my generation, who fought and died in Vietnam understands why our nation fought an unwinnable war thousands of miles away from our shores. Billions of dollars and more than 58,000 lives were lost for absolutely nothing. In the end, our military left in shame.

The war in Afghanistan, which continues today, began as an effort to capture or kill the leader of Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, who planned the attack inside our nation on September 11, 2001. When that failed, and for a reason I do not understand, our military remained to fight against the Taliban. After more than 18 years nothing has been accomplished; trillions of dollars were wasted; and most importantly nearly 2,400 lives have been lost and more than 20,000 have been injured.

George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld decided to take our nation to another war based on false pretenses. They claimed that Iraq was creating “weapons of mass destruction,” and had been involved in the attacks on 9/11; all of this was manufactured; not one iota of truth was found. The losses were nearly 2.4 trillion dollars, and 460,000 lives were lost; Iraqi soldiers, Iraqi civilians, American soldiers and civilian personnel.

After American military left Iraq, ISIS began capturing cities in the north, and a civil war continues today between Sunnis and Shiites. The entire region has become destabilized.

Trump’s foolhardy assassination of an Iranian general placed our nation in danger of engaging in another unwinnable war. Threats from your illegitimate president forced the leaders of Iran to promise severe retaliation.

On only one other occasion have I witnessed such a serious threat to world peace and possible nuclear confrontation. In October of 1962 I was a junior in high school. U.S. military surveillance discovered construction of sites intended to launch missiles from Cuba at the United States. It was labeled as the “Cuban Missile Crisis.” For 13 days every American expected an attack. President Kennedy refused to back down and eventually the Premier of the USSR, Nikita Khrushchev, agreed to dismantle soviet missile bases in Cuba.

The current situation with Iran has far too many similarities. The United States has not “won” a war since WWII, and no one could ever win a nuclear war.

White, old men have been eager to place America in wars throughout my lifetime, knowing they will never be on a battlefield, and they are able to protect their families from serving as well. Old, white men who are invested in the military industrial complex make fortunes while young people lose their lives.

Throughout America’s history Republicans have been eager to place our nation in wars. Trump is not a Republican, or an American; he is a tool of Vladimir Putin and the Saudi Royal Family and that makes him the most dangerous man in the world.

“The Truth Lives Here”

Op-ed by James Turnage

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Image courtesy of DonkeyHotey

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