Connecticut residents with ties to Iran and the Middle East are speaking out following U.S. attacks on the country.
Members of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CT), the state’s chapter of the country’s largest Muslim civil rights organization, are calling on the state’s congressional representatives to oppose the United States’ war against Iran.
Chapter chairman Farhan Memon said he would like Connecticut’s elected officials in Washington to focus on reducing the cost of living instead of funding a war that he said does not serve the interests of the American people.
“When families across Connecticut and the nation are struggling to afford groceries, rent and health care, it's insulting and humiliating to ask them to fund yet another costly, never-ending foreign war,” Memon said.
Memon said he wants Congress to vote on the War Powers Resolution. This would force President Trump to notify Congress about putting U.S. armed forces into hostile situations abroad within 48 hours.
The Trump administration said it targeted Iran because of the country's longstanding anti-U.S. efforts and nuclear weapon program.
But Memon said Iran is not a threat to the United States, so the American people should not be asked to sacrifice their lives or tax dollars for an unauthorized war.
“What we saw this weekend was the president of the United States engage in a war of choice, not a war of necessity,” Memon said. “What we've gotten here is a crisis that the president has engaged in to distract from the very real problems that Americans have.”
According to Memon, the war against Iran could place American communities at heightened risk and potentially result in the deaths of U.S. service members and civilians.
“It's about our children dying. It's about our money being spent,” Memon said. “These are not things that should be taken lightly, and our congressional representatives need to be involved and need to speak out against it.”
Elected officials respond
U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, said American military action against Iran is a "disaster."
Murphy told CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday that you can't bomb a nation into becoming a democracy.
“The most likely outcome here is that hard liners take over the government,” Murphy said. “They restart their missile program, they restart their nuclear program, and we're just right back at bombing them again and putting American lives and regional lives at risk again in a year or two."
Murphy also called the air strikes illegal, saying the White House is obligated under the Constitution to ask Congress for an authorization of military force.
Speaking on NPR’s “Weekend Edition Sunday,” U.S. Rep. Jim Himes from southwestern Connecticut said if the Trump administration is attempting regime change in Iran, recent history shows that chaos can sometimes result.
“In the coming weeks, as we see whether there is in fact regime change, something you might be doubtful about,” Himes said. “Americans will begin to decide whether this enormously expensive and risky operation was in fact worth it, if it doesn't change the regime, in the same way that the regime has not been changed in Venezuela.”
Himes pointed to recent similar efforts by U.S. forces in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. He said there are dozens of bad regimes around the world, and the U.S. should avoid becoming the world's policeman.
Iranian American community reacts
While Connecticut’s federal delegation took issue with Trump’s actions, members of Connecticut’s small Iranian American community greeted the strikes with mixed emotions, even as they criticized the Iranian regime for human rights abuses.
Hossein Kamaly, a professor of Islamic studies and interreligious studies at Hartford International University for Religion and Peace, hasn’t been to Iran since 2009.
He protested against the presidential election results; he said he left soon after due to government repression.
But Kamaly said war isn’t the answer, citing his respect for human rights.
“War undermines all of that; autocracy similarly undermines human dignity,” Kamaly said.
Kamaly spoke to a friend in Iran after the air strikes commenced.
“She said, ‘By the way, I may die.’ How would that make anyone feel, a friend, telling them that,” he said.
Other Iranian Americans like Ramin Ahmadi are broadly in favor of the attacks, even as they are also concerned over civilian casualties. Ahmadi, a physician and the founder of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, characterized the air strikes as aiding in the efforts to topple an authoritarian regime.
Ahmadi took issue with Connecticut congressional officials who opposed the strikes, and said the population already faces violence, but from their own government since protests erupted earlier this year.
“Our allies come to our defense, and we have a more level battleground. It is called a war, but if we are slaughtered and no one is helping us, that's considered peace,” Ahmadi said.
Kaveh Khoshnood, a medical professor at the Yale School of Public Health, said the attacks were the only option left to dislodge the Iranian government. He opposes the Iranian government.
Meanwhile, people inside and outside of Iran wonder who will lead the country. Reza Pahlavi, son of the shah overthrown in 1979, is interested.
“I feel like he is the right person, honestly, to take over, because again, I am not aware of dozens of other people who have the capacity to take over,” Khoshnood said.
Connecticut Public’s Jeni Ahrens and Matt Dwyer contributed to this report.
