To the Editor:

The possibility of war with Iran has never been greater. Daily there are new provocations, and at each step, the threat of hostilities escalates.

A third U.S. aircraft carrier has passed the Straits of Hormuz and entered the Persian Gulf. There have been attempts on the lives of Israeli diplomats. Iran nuclear scientists have been the victims of what could be covert operations on the part of the Israelis.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has said the Israelis might attack Iran’s nuclear facilities between April and June.A conflict with Iran would be disastrous for the world.

Deprived of a significant source of oil and shocked by the sudden surge in energy costs, the still-teetering economies of the world would be dragged back into the sullen twilight of a new Great Recession. All the work and wealth that has been poured into reviving depressed markets would be negated.

From its stronghold in Lebanon, Hezbollah would rain fire on the Middle East.

U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan and the diplomatic corps in Iraq would be threatened or engaged directly. Our ostensible allies, the Gulf States, could come under fire from Iranian missiles.

Worst of all, Iranians citizens who wish us no harm would find themselves in the terrifying gaze of the world’s only superpower. How many thousands of innocents would die?

We must fight for peace because the alternative is too terrible to contemplate. A war with Iran is one we cannot afford, nor one we should wage.

—Jesse Dean

Political Science Major