Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has acknowledged accidentally shooting down the Ukrainian jetliner that crashed last week. General Haijizadeh, said his IRG aerospace division “accepts full responsibility for the shootdown.”
He said that when he learned about the downing of the plane, “I wished I was dead.”
I could feel his anguish.
Unfortunately, this mistake was all too likely, given the tensions between the U.S. and Iran.
In President Trump’s 2016 campaign, he called for ceasing “endless wars.”
I agreed wholeheartedly.
However, since his election, there has been no end to Middle East wars; in fact, conditions are now worse.
In the tit-for-tat lead-up to the Ukrainian plane crash, I feared the U.S. would force a war with Iran.
So far, we have avoided all-out disaster.
It’s time to do something different.
Here is my proposal for U.S. government action:
Apologize to Iran for killing General Soleimani, an Iranian government representative.
Apologize to Iraq for killing (collateral damage) an Iraqi official in the same drone strike, which violated Iraqi sovereignty.
Lift the sanctions against the Iranian government.
Rejoin the Iran nuclear deal.
Withdraw all American military personnel from Middle East countries.
Nothing listed here holds Iran accountable for its part in increasing tensions, but I am not an Iranian, I am an American; I am speaking for what I believe my country should do.
Karolyn Burdick
Clallam Bay