Photo Credit: Majid Saeedi - Getty Images
By: Ann Wright, former U.S. Diplomat and Retired U.S. Army Colonel
Twenty-three years ago on March 19, 2003, I resigned from the U.S. Department of State in opposition to Bush Jr’s administration’s decision to attack and invade Iraq.
In 2001, after 9/11, and while attacking Afghanistan, Bush spoke of the Axis of Evil-Iran, Iraq and North Korea.
In March 2003, the U.S. attacked Iraq.
Two other U.S. diplomats also resigned in opposition to the U.S. war on Iraq: Brady Kiesling and John Brown.
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In February 2026, the U.S. and Israel attack on Iran.
Twenty-three years after I resigned on March 19, 2003, the Trump administration is in the third week of its attack on Iran, led into the war by Israel. The rationale of the war-another lie-no weapons of mass destruction, but a nuclear program that Trump said was obliterated in the June 2025 U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran.
Lies, Lies, Lies for War
Just as Iraq had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks on the United States and did not have weapons of mass destruction as alleged by my boss Secretary of State Colin Powell, who knew they didn’t, as did National Security Advisor (it could be a mushroom cloud) Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Vice President Dick Cheney and President George W. Bush, they all lied the United States into war on Iraq, as Trump has lied for a war on Iran.
Today, the Trump administration is massively bombing Iran at the behest of Israel using as an excuse for assassinating Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and 40 in the leadership of Iran and killing thousands of Iranian civilians the same spurious rationale—the possibility of Iran developing nuclear weapons, not that they had nuclear weapons, but that they could possibly develop them in the future.
Dangerously, the regime change attempt and massacre of Iran’s leadership continue with Israel announcing that it has assassinated four of the remaining senior leaders of Iran, Iranian security chief and key negotiator Ali Larijani, Larijani’s deputy, the Chief of Intelligence and General Gholam Reza Soleimani, the head of the Basij militia.
Mystery Analysis-Can Bombing, Destruction and Assassinations Make Your Country Safer?
How Israel and the United States believe they are NOT making enemies from their attacks on Iran is one of the world’s greatest mysteries.
Adding to the “in-your-face,” “we don’t care what you think,” is the U.S. cooperation and furnishing of weapons for the Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and the massive ethnic cleansing in the West Bank.
Has the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza made the U.S. and Israel safer?
Has the Israeli destruction of southern Lebanon with U.S. weapons made the U.S. and Israel safer?
Has the U.S. kidnapping of the President of Venezuela and his wife and killing of over 100 Venezuelans and 32 Cuban security personnel made the U.S. safer?
Has Trump’s threats of “I can take over Cuba” made the U.S. safer?
One Resignation, so far, in Opposition to the War on Iran–Director of the National Counterterrorism Center
To date only one person that we know of from the Trump administration has resigned over the decision to attack Iran. Joe Kent a very senior official in the administration. Retired Green Beret and CIA para-military operative, was Director of the National Counterterrorism Center. He resigned on March 16 writing in his resignation letter to Trump that Iran “posed no imminent threat to our nation” and that the administration “started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby”.
Blowback
To the U.S. and Israeli attitude of “we don’t care what you think,” countries and individuals do care and there is no doubt that both Israel and the United States will see blowback from their criminal actions, from countries refusing to cooperate (finally) with the U.S and isolating (hopefully) Israel. And some are beginning to take individual actions.
The effects of the U.S. and Israeli actions in only the first two months of 2026 (from 2023 for the Gaza genocide) will haunt the Middle East and the world for years to come.
Will there ever be a “Peace President”?
I am so thankful I resigned from the U.S. government twenty-three years ago and have worked with many groups since then to try to stop the murderous actions of the U.S. government.
In demonstrations, petitions, letters, tens of millions of U.S. citizens have told U.S. administrations and Congress, both Republican and Democratic, to stop these wars. But once into power even “Peace Presidents” lie to their supporters and start wars.
Someday, perhaps, U.S. citizens will elect a person who really believes in peace and will refuse wars of choice.
Considering the political, military, corporate, Congressional and billionaire war institutions of our country, we are up against powerful, well-funded war cheerleaders!!
We must keep trying to stop these war mongers!!!
If We Want a Peaceful World, We Must Not Give Up
For the future of our planet Earth and those on the planet, we can never give up.
Take action for peace! Stop the War on Iran!
By the time Ann Wright resigned in March 2003 in opposition to the Bush war on Iraq, she had been in the U.S. Army/Army Reserves for 29 years and had retired as a Colonel. She had been in the State Department as a U.S. diplomat for 16 years and served in U.S. Embassies in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia, Afghanistan and Mongolia. She is a member of Veterans For Peace, CODEPINK: Women for Peace, World Beyond War, the Gaza Flotilla Coalition and many other peace and social justice organizations. She is the co-author of “Dissent: Voices of Conscience.”
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