My Fellow Readers:

The United States and Israel attacked Iran this past week in what might appear to be a reckless war initiated by two war-mongering countries. Before knee-jerk reactions, fueled by righteous indignation, send Burlington, Brattleboro, and Montpelier protesters into the streets, it is worth examining some facts that may shed light on this recent action.

According to a January 21 Associated Press article, 3,117 Iranian protesters have been killed since December 28. Al Jazeera, a leading Islamic English-language news outlet, reported the same number. However, at least 4,560 Iranian civilians have been murdered in that period, according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency. “The agency has been accurate throughout the years on demonstrations and unrest in Iran,” notes a January 21 CBC article, “relying on a network of activists inside the country that confirms all reported fatalities. The Associated Press has been unable to independently verify the death toll.”

Since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, Iran has experienced repeated waves of civilian protests and brutal government/military crackdowns.

An Iranian-Canadian human rights activist believes the true number of fatalities is much higher. Arsalan Kahnemuyipour, a University of Toronto linguistics professor, told Power and Politics, a CBC news program, that “these numbers are based on names that the human rights agencies have been able to identify.” In his January interview, he added, “The reality is there is a chance people may have been motivated to go out because they believed there would be support, which turned out to be a hollow promise from President Trump. But the claim that there was any kind of foreign intervention or interference in terms of instigating the protests or killing people is totally made up.”

The most recent death toll of Iranian protesters exceeds that of many earlier rounds of political dissent. The 1979 Revolution (January 1978–February 1979) ushered in the bloody Islamic rule of Ayatollah Khomeini. The most widely accepted estimate of civilian deaths in less than two months is 2,781, though figures vary between Iranian government sources and Western historians.

Iran planned and financed the suicide bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut on October 23, 1983, in which 241 American troops were killed. Iran has also financially supported Hamas, which carried out the worst attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust on October 7, 2023. Hezbollah, based in Lebanon, is another proxy group bolstered by Iranian funding. 

Ergo, whether one views the attack as justified or not, the United States and Israel hope to topple the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism. Iran has, for decades, continuously sought to destroy Israel and cripple America.

Over the weekend, Iranian Americans in Los Angeles celebrated the coordinated airstrikes by Israel and the United States that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader. Los Angeles is home to the largest Iranian community in the United States, many of whom fled the country after the 1979 revolution that gave rise to the Islamic Republic.

It is obvious that the majority of Iranian people—whether in Iran, Europe, or America—want freedom from the Sharia-law-wielding mullahs who have made the average Persian citizen poor and unhappy. Strict dress and morality codes dictated by the Quran have helped spark this firestorm. Iran’s oil revenues are spent on supporting terrorism and pursuing nuclear weapons. In today’s Iran, you are likely to be rich or well-off if you work for the corrupt government, while ordinary citizens are left to scrape by from paycheck to paycheck.

Bibi Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, has often said that the Jewish state lives in a rough neighborhood. When you consider the physical size of his country, one has to wonder how it can withstand such evil forces supported by Iran, such as Hezbollah and Hamas. Israel is only approximately 420 kilometers, or 260 miles, from north to south. Its narrowest point is near Netanya, at just 9 to 10 miles wide, and its widest point is about 70 miles across in the north. Roughly the size of New Jersey—about 14 percent larger—it is hard to imagine how such a tiny country could survive a nuclear attack. Like Hitler, or Haman, the ancient Persian antisemite chronicled in the Book of Esther, Israel’s enemies have made the Jewish people under- stand—especially after October 7—that they remain a prime target of Islamist terrorism.

Sadly, to many, traditional Islamic jurisprudence holds that once a country comes under Muslim rule, it is to be considered permanently part of the Islamic realm. The concept of Dār al‑Islām (the “Abode of Islam”) is used to argue that Palestine falls into this category. Before Islam was introduced in 610 CE and Muhammad’s subsequent conquests, the peoples of what are now Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and every other Middle Eastern nation lived as pagans, atheists, Jews, Zorastrians and Christians—and were generally content with their own religious or non- religious traditions.

As of this writing, six American servicemen have been killed and five seriously wounded in Operation Epic Fury. There are no details available at this time regarding Israeli casualties.

-Peter Fernandez, Northfield

To the Editor:

Sen Tom Cotton said Arab nations are asking Trump for sites in Iran they can attack/bomb. If true, they no longer want to remain neutral and want to join with Israel and the US in this war effort. It also says a lot about the Abraham Accord potential being a major force on that region. 

-Frank Mazur, South Burlington

Hello Senators:

I live in Bristol and appeal to you 13 Senators to protect my family from any Prog legislation that will increase my cost of heating oil, gasoline and electricity.  400,000 Vermonters will agree with that request.

You don’t have the votes to kill H. 740. But, in the next, your Majority Party can defeat their GWSA agenda on the Senate floor.

I need three more Republican Senators.

You can find those candidates, county by county, by organizing, now, a campaign of your colleagues, County GOP, and volunteers to get the word out that only a Republican Senate can save Vermont from its downward trend.

GOP HQ can do much of the vetting process and mailers.  Campaigns will be funded locally whereas, a pledge of $1 million, on an as-needed basis, can pull this off.  More on AFP, soon.

Can you imagine being Approps Chair and amending the House budget by appropriating a dollar to the Climate Council?  Imagine the flood of new tax bills in 202 and thereafter.  You can vote them down, Senate leader.

You control the Floor.  Vote down the crazies;   select Chairs and members; send your bills to the House and provide special privileges.  Call yourselves the Sweet Sixteen.

You will need huge crossover voters in this year of VT Party disunity and national Trump-hating all causing low turnout.   You and the volunteers have to convince neighbors (Rs,Ds and Is) to vote for a Republican Senator.  

In subsequent emails, I will offer strong messages that shift the narrative to your standing to oppose the Democrats on ‘saving the planet’, regulating the use of private land holdings and other nonsense. The offered messages will target fuel customers, Front Porch Forum readers, State and local news outlets.  Guy Page agrees with this objective.   Let others do the broadcasting about your real value to the average voter and our Legislature needing three more.  You are creating a Bi-Partisan General Assembly.  That is the Pinnacle of Democracy.

I and others devoted to burying the Clean Heat Standard forever and other contentious legislation can draft, for your approval: statements, floor speeches, commentaries and mail to constituents.  A young audience can appeal to your focus on them.  Truth be told, us boomers are leaving them a hell of a mess.

We elected 6 in 2024 with a lot of crossovers.  CHS was one target voters aimed at.  You can use it again to remind us, at least 13 times, to vote for you to kill the evil son of S.5.

-John McCormick, Bristol