Readers weigh in on Trump’s strikes on Iran
Do you agree with our readers? Have your say on these MetroTalk topics and more in the comments
Iran war will cause ‘misery and death for millions’
Donald Trump has been threatening his Nato allies if they fail to get involved in his illegal war on Iran.
He wants the UK and others to send warships to keep the Strait of Hormuz ‘open and safe’ for oil tankers.
This is quite the surprise, bearing in mind that in his first term as president he effectively said that he would encourage Russia to attack Nato allies, repeating the sentiment in 2024. More recently he has waged economic war against Nato nations and threatened annexation of a member’s territory. He has also added ten per cent to the cost of weapons paid by us for use in Ukraine (to defend Europe).
Does Nato exist any more, except in name? It looks to me that Trump has now weaponised what is already a dead man walking. He expects the poodle to come to heel and says he will remember if we don’t. Given his past record he may side with Russia anyway when they attack, as they most likely will if they are not defeated in Ukraine.
The leaders of Britain and Europe need to take our mutual defence seriously and not factor in the US as an ally or supplier of arms.
We must plan for the death of Nato – if we were not already forewarned, we are now on notice – and brace ourselves for greatly increased defence spending.
Trump has effectively started World War III. He should return the Fifa Peace Prize as he joins the pantheon of tyrants who cause misery and death for millions. Roger Morris, Mitcham
‘Iran has never been a threat to the US’, says reader
Trump supposedly ‘obliterated’ Iran’s nuclear programme last year.
Let’s be honest, Iran has never been a threat to the US – it is a threat to Israel’s dominance in the region, so we all know why the war was started.
Trump has gone into a war with depleted armaments because he had supplied Ukraine with a lot of what he had. Now he has two wars to supply weapons for and a depleted munitions stockpile – not much of a plan, was it?
And now he wants his allies to help after he’s been distancing himself from them since he became president.
I think it’s time he stood down and let vice-president JD Vance take over – perhaps he could get the US out of this mess and start building bridges with the allies Trump has taken for granted. Roger, Wolverhampton
‘When people feel trapped, their final recourse can become extreme violence’
If you try to catch a rat running through a narrow alley, the rodent will run as fast as it can. But if it reaches a cul-de-sac, it will turn around and attack you with a ferocity you might never have imagined.
Human beings are not so different. When people feel trapped, their final recourse can become extreme violence because, at that point, they believe they have nothing left to lose.
Fanatical hatred does not appear overnight. It grows slowly, fed by desperation and suffering until it reaches levels that seem like madness. War is one of the most powerful forces for driving hatred to unimaginable degrees.
The children of Gaza, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and now Iran, who have seen their parents and siblings blown to pieces or left mutilated, will never forget those they believe responsible.
In a few years, the US will almost certainly refer to many of them as terrorists. Carmen Okri, London
Reader says Polanski ‘refused to support a motion in the London Assembly welcoming the removal of the Ayatollah’
Anna (MetroTalk, Fri) thinks I confuse ‘anti-war sentiment with support for the Ayatollahs’ and that I am singling out the Greens for doing so. It’s just that their leader refused to support a motion in the London Assembly welcoming the removal of Ayatollah Khamenei. Hmm…
Anna asks for proof that Iran has created a nuclear weapon. The answer is that it hasn’t or it would have certainly been used to attack Israel because the mullahs truly believe in martyrdom as legitimate state policy.
Mind you, without boots on the ground, the present air assault could prove to be unsuccessful in removing the regime. Chris Shepherd, London
Will Israel and the US destroy every country who ‘don’t have nukes’
I think the lesson countries will take from everything going on now is that if you don’t get nukes, Israel and the US will eventually destroy your country. Stuart Barstow, Manchester
Do you agree with our readers? Have your say on these MetroTalk topics and more in the comments
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