Yesterday, it was Vietnam. Today, it is Gaza

Aug. 6 marked 79 years since the U.S. dropped an uranium bomb on Hiroshima. Aug. 9 marked 79 years since the U.S. dropped a plutonium bomb on Nagasaki. More than 200,000 people died, most of them civilians.

Aug. 7 is less well remembered. In 1964, just 60 years ago, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was approved, opening the gates to our fateful war in Vietnam. Zero members of the U.S. House of Representatives voted nay, and only two senators voted nay. There should be statues and memorials to those two senators, Wayne Morse and Ernest Gruening. But their names have been largely lost in the dustbin of history. Tragically, U.S. veterans and family members are still dying daily in the U.S. from Agent Orange. Tragically, Vietnamese, Cambodians, and Laotians are still dying daily from Agent Orange and unexploded ordnance.

Today, the compelling moral issue is the U.S. aiding and abetting the destruction of Gaza and its people. There are a few voices of political leaders demanding that the U.S. stop arming Israel, but, despite the efforts of heroic groups like Jewish Voice For Peace, their voices are mostly ignored. How will history judge us? More importantly, what can U.S. citizens do now to end this obscene insanity?

Ed Flaherty

Iowa City