51% of Americans support military action to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon (source). 36% are against such military action.

The above statistics scare me. To me it shows that while Americans are tired of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, they are not tired of war in general. There is still a fundamental hope among the majority of Americans that good can overwhelm evil by hard military force.

For every word I write or speak on the subject, I make sure to read 10 more, and listen much more than speak. There are many very difficult moral, political, social, and financial questions here. How bad is it if Iran gets the bomb? How bad is it that China, Pakistan, and North Korea already have the bomb? What is the best way to prevent the bomb from being used anywhere in the world? Does the United States support Israel if it invades Iran?

The more I learn about war, the more anti-war I become. And the older I get, the more willing I am to stand up for what I believe. I am in support of having a large military but with an emphasis on defense, not preemptive offense.

I don’t want to write much more here today, because a blog is not the correct medium for such discussion. But this is simply a request that you keep your ears and mind open to the facts, costs, and ideas around war before you declare that you are for or against it.

Think not only of the short term, but the long term effects as well.