image courtesy of wikipedia.org

Dear Sir or Madam,

Thank you for your service to our country. As you know, President Obama’s historic peace accord with Iran is in jeopardy. Granted, we could smash Iran into little pieces without very much effort at all. However, to do so would precipitate a catastrophic descent into world war, destabilizing our military hegemony and costing millions or billions of lives. It would also place America firmly in the historical category of hubristic villain states, and could very well bring about our downfall, if not our complete destruction. A vote against the Iran deal is a vote for that second option.

Some of you, despite his astonishing list of accomplishments and his virtuosic oratory, persist in the belief that President Obama is somehow unqualified for the Presidency. This is why you are so quick to believe, without evidence, that America has “been fleeced.” I propose that we have instead acquired sheep’s clothing. We have the opportunity to skip the world war entirely and remain the preeminent global superpower of the twenty first century. In the process we will untangle the root causes of unrest in the middle east, unite Eurasia, and free up global economic and military resources, allowing us to focus them where they are most needed, Africa, South America, and South Asia.

It was our great fortune during the 20th century to become the largest economy in the world. This happened through no merit of our own, but rather as an accidental consequence of China’s disastrous experiment with Marxism. It was an anomaly. China’s economy was the largest when the Roman Empire was second largest. No one knocked them out of first place. They shut it down themselves. Now they’ve started it again. China’s economic supremacy is based on trade. Without access to global markets, their economy contracts, as it did under Marxist control. Historically their overland trade routes, known as “silk roads,” provided them with access to Roman, Greek, Arabian, Persian, and Indian markets. They would very much like to reestablish these overland routes, particulary to Europe, with its high concentration of wealth and luxury goods.

Obviously, they would prefer to link their railways to the Russian transcontinental route, but Russia has seen the videos of Chinese soldiers boarding trains with orderly celerity. China’s defensive strategy involves a giant standing army which can be easily deployed to any part of the country by rail. While adequate for defense, this makes for a terrible offensive strategy, because the soldiers are sitting ducks while they’re on the train. Still, Russia wants no part of it, which means that a southern transcontinental route must be built, through Iran, connecting to the Orient Express route in Istanbul.

Please understand that this is going to happen whether we approve the Iran Deal or not. Persia was on the old silk road and she will be again. There will be tremendous economic benefits for countries along the route, including Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Syria. We have tried to solve the problems these countries face with humanitarian aid, which did little to establish permanent economic ties, and often fell into the hands of warlords or corrupt officials. We have tried to change their oppressive governments with sanctions and sometimes force. The CIA has overthrown Iran’s government twice, and once sold chemical weapons (Mustard Gas) banned by the Geneva Conventions to Saddam Hussein, who then waged a ten year war that killed 750,000 Iranians. Sort of puts their chanting “Death to America” in perspective, doesn’t it?

This is a region where economic resources are scarce, with the result that human life is comparatively cheap. Most people with education or means have already left. The 130 million people currently living in Syria, Iran, and Afghanistan are not going anywhere. Our stategy of dropping things out of the sky, sometimes food, sometimes bombs, has made things progressively worse for the last forty years. We have two choices. We can destroy 130 million people, making us worse than Hitler, Stalin, and Mao combined, giving us the all time high score among hubristic villain states. Or we can make peace with Iran and let the trade routes open up again. You do believe in the free market, don’t you, sir or madam? You’re not a Marxist, are you?

Finally, please give Iran enough credit to acknowledge that they understand our position on Israel to be intractable and adamantine. Israel is not on the table, except as an unspoken agreement that Israel is not to be touched, ever, by anyone. This whole arrangement is totally unstable, not because Israel’s economy is expanding, but because much of the region is hungry and we treat them as enemy combatants rather than fellow human beings. Iran is overjoyed at the nuclear deal because they are being recognized as a legitimate country for the first time since 1979. They don’t want a nuclear bomb. They want peace and prosperity. Isn’t that what we want, too?