Spain Not Backing US Conflict in Iran

As I write this, Spain’s Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, continues to defy Trump’s desire to use the country’s joint military bases, and criticizes the U.S. and Israel’s military actions in Iran. By the time you read this, that may have changed. Hopefully, it doesn’t.

According to Sanchez, “We are not going to be complicit in something that is bad for the world and is also contrary to our values and interests, just out of fear of reprisals from someone.” Good!

I also oppose this war. I don’t want my taxes to pay for the deaths of innocent lives. America’s military industrial complex likes its citizens to cower in fear of a potential, and extremely unlikely, nuclear attack as an excuse to spend and spend and keep military jobs alive. War means profits.

Dictators don’t get to be dictators by being stupid. Nuclear weapons are a mutual destruction defense policy. It’s guarantees another country won’t nuke yours. I find it hard to believe that a suicide-thinking dictator would have the only code to set off nuclear destruction. Retaliation for cutting off someone’s head doesn’t even come close to the wide-spread retaliation for nuking another country. Even extremists have families.

Trump also uses Iran’s recent violation of human rights to attack. Where were human rights claims when he bombed supposed drug boats out of international waters? There was no capture, there was no waiting until the boats hit U.S. waters, and there was no due process via trial by jury. We all know what the drug boat killings were.

Following Sanchez’s refusal, President Trump then attempted to bully Spain into letting the U.S. use the country’s joint military bases in its attacks on Iran. The threats came in the form of ending U.S. trade with Spain. It’s not clear how Trump would cut off trade with Spain, though. The EU negotiates trade on behalf of all its 27 member states.

U.S. Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, said Spain’s refusal to allow the U.S. to use its bases endangered American lives, and claimed that anything that slows down our ability to engage and prosecute this war in the fastest, most effective manner puts American lives at risk. Excuse me! Trump has endangered American lives by sending our volunteer military into an unnecessary war. Those who may die knew what they were getting into when they signed up to serve.

Sánchez has called the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran an “unjustifiable” and “dangerous” military intervention. I agree. No sovereign country should attack another sovereign country unless attacked first. That, however, doesn’t stop Trump, who even threatened to land at the bases against opposition. Once again, the man who calls out dictators acts like one himself.

Sánchez expressed concern that the attacks on Iran could lead to another costly military quagmire in the Middle East, similar to the past American interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan. “In short, the position of the government of Spain can be summarized in four words. No to the war.”

Thank you, Spain. Stay strong. Many Americans also oppose American military intervention in Iran.

Source used: Associated Press