Is the head of one tyrant worth the lives of millions?

As NATO and other Western nations are staging war games right off the shores of Iran, the mainstream media is waging an extensive propaganda campaign back home. Excuse after excuse has been handed down to us in the past few months, but is there really any justification in the world for the West to bring the same death and destruction to Iran that they have brought to Iraq? Is there any captured spy, or weapons program, or crazed dictator that is worth the creation of another human rights nightmare and money pit like we have seen in Iraq and Afghanistan?

I won’t argue that Ahmadinejad has a few screws loose, and I’ll agree that he is a tyrant who runs a brutal theocracy. However, is that any reason to put the lives of millions of innocent people in danger and to destroy the infrastructure of a thriving civilization, whose only crime is that they are subservient to an oppressive dictator? Isn’t every country on the planet guilty of that same offense? Should we be judged individually for the actions of Bush? Or the actions of Obama? Or the actions of the interrogators at Guantanamo Bay? Are you guilty of the horrors committed by these people simply because half of your paycheck was forcibly taken from you to fund all of this?

What if a powerful group of nations wanted to invade America tomorrow because of decisions that were made by Bush, Obama or whomever. If a full-scale invasion were launched by a more powerful foe, most average Americans would run a very high risk of being displaced from their home, having their whole life disrupted and possibly losing many loved ones. In fact, there is a good chance they wouldn’t even make it through this altercation because civilian casualties are extremely high in wars of aggression. So even if you weren’t being directly blamed for the crimes of your oppressor, you would still be punished as a result. There is no doubt that these kind of fears are deep in the hearts of millions of innocent, peaceful and oppressed people in Iran.

Killing the innocent and oppressed people in a particular country and disrupting their lives with violence does not seem like a good way of dealing with the madman who has held them captive. Let’s put this situation into context. Imagine the year is 1800 and there is an especially vicious slave master in the state of Alabama. His plantation was coincidentally sitting on a stockpile of iron and mineral deposits, which made all of the other slave owners covet his land. For the sake of this conversation, let’s say he calls himself Crazy Jack. Let’s imagine that this guy treated his slaves a bit worse than the other masters treated theirs and that he was using them to construct weapons of war. A few plantation owners over in Georgia got together and gave their slaves guns, and marched their slaves to Alabama with intent of overthrowing Crazy Jack and taking his land. Now, if thousands of slaves on both sides get murdered in the process and the whole plantation is destroyed, aren’t all of the slave owners guilty of murder? And hasn’t an intolerable injustice occurred?

How is today’s situation with Iran any different than this hypothetical scenario? We have a whole bunch of psychopathic aristocrats fighting over land, resources and global dominance and each of them are willing to risk millions of lives in these turf wars. Is the head of one tyrant worth the lives of millions and the pain of billions? Sadly, throughout the most of history people have been convinced that this is a fair trade, and that the ends somehow justify the means. Unfortunately, the only ends in any war are violence, murder and a total decline in civilization. Maybe some oil companies get some contracts, some arms manufacturers get some sales and some governments pick up some land, but nothing is ever really accomplished in war. A war with Iran is no different, it will do nothing but bring more pain to the innocent people of this world and ensure that the United States will repeat the same fate suffered by the ancient Roman Empire.

J.G. Vibes – is an author, and artist – with an established record label. In addition to featuring a wide variety of activist information, his website – Good Vibes Promotions promotes for electronic dance music events. You can keep up with him and his forthcoming book Alchemy Of the Modern Renaissance, at his Facebook page. AOTMR will be released this spring, thanks to Leilah Publications.