From Newsgroup: nz.politics

by Rep. John J. Duncan Jr. | Mar 19, 2026

Reagan Carney, a really fine young man with whom we go to church, told
me a few days ago that the University of Tennessee Young Republicans
had a board on which members could express their opinions about the
war in Iran.

The board had only one question: oIs the Iran war putting America
first?o At that point, 10 had signed under the Yes; 70 had signed
under the No.

This confirmed a story which ABC News ran on March 7 quoting Jack
Posobiec of Turning Point USA and the conservative publication, Human
Events.

Posobiec said: oFor the younger end of the spectrum inside MAGA,
foreign intervention is just off the radara.They see it as
prioritizing foreign interestsa.o He said MAGA is split by age with
more support for the Iran war among older conservatives.

The ABC story led this way: oPresident Donald TrumpAs decision to
carry out strikes on Iran has further exposed a fracture among some of
the PresidentAs fiercest supporters inside MAGA worlduone that many
supporters say will only widen with every week the conflict
continues.o

Like the Tennessee students, the great majority realize this war is
being fought at the insistence of Israel at tremendous expense for US taxpayers. This is IsraelAs war. IranAs total military budget is only
a little over one percent of ours. Iran was no threat to us at all.

In 1999, Charley Reese was voted as the most popular columnist in a
vote by thousands of C-Span viewers. Unfortunately, he passed away in
2013, but many things he wrote are just as true today.

In 2002, he said in a column: oThe truth is this: The terrorist
attacks against the United States are a direct result of our one-sided
support of IsraelAs oppression of the Palestinians.o

He added: oThe big pushers for war with Iraq are the usual
suspectsuAmericans with a long record of pretending to speak about
AmericaAs interests when in fact they are pushing an Israeli agenda.o
Today, switch the word Iran for Iraq.

In 2005, Reese wrote: oPropaganda aside, our actions have created the
almost universal hostility toward the United States in the Arab world.
Our actions have been to support Israel 100 percent while it kills and brutalizes the Palestiniansa.o Think Gaza where many thousands of
little children were starved and killed.

In Washington, you should always follow the money. Today, silence has
been bought by massive campaign contributions either for almost every
member of Congress or fear of contributions against them. If any other
country had been doing all the bombing, starving and killing Israel
has done over the last many years, the Congress would have been
rushing to pass resolutions of condemnation.

However, members know there is an unwritten but ironclad rule: You can criticize our own government, but you cannot criticize Israel.

Today, the only national public criticism in this country is coming
from people too powerful to silence, like Joe Rogan, Tucker Carlson,
Megan Kelly, Ron Paul, Tom Woods, Jeffrey Sachs, Dave Smith, David
Stockman and a few others. As gas prices go up and our economy goes
down, opposition is growing fast among the general public.

President Trump said in his Inaugural Address: oWe will measure our
success not only by little battles we win, but also by the wars that
end, and perhaps most importantly, the wars we never get into.o

I think he realizes that if gas prices double or triple and he allows
Netanyahu to drag us and thisg war into the fall, Republicans will
suffer big losses in the November elections.

I also wish he would realize that our two greatest war leaders who
later became PresidentuWashington and Eisenhoweruwere both very
antiwar.

Washington warned against oovergrown military establishments which,
under any form of government, are inauspicious to liberty and which
are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty.o

His farewell address has been read on the floor of the US Senate every
year since 1862 near his birthday. In it, he also warned against
oentangling allianceso and added these words: oA passionate attachment
of one nation for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for
the favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common
interest in cases where no real common interest existsabetrays the
former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter
without adequate inducement or justification.

EisenhowerAs farewell address is very well known, and, like
Washington, he also warned against othe grave implication of our
immense military establishment and large arms industry.o

Then he added these famous words: oIn the councils of government, we
must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether
sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential
for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.o

Not as well known is his speech on April 16, 1953, to the American
Society of Newspaper Editors, which may be the most antiwar speech
ever given by an American President. I wish everyone would read it.

Finally, in a speech broadcast from London in 1959, Eisenhower said:
oI think people want peace so much that one of these days governments
had better get out of the way and let them have it.o

Author
Rep. John J. Duncan Jr.

John James Duncan Jr. is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for Tennessee's 2nd congressional district from 1988 to
2019. A lawyer, former judge, and former long serving member of the
Army National Guard, he is a member of the Republican Party.


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