Editor,

The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) has a long-standing testimony against war, and we oppose the escalation of conflict in Iran following the U.S. assassination of Gen. Qassem Soleimani.

We condemn the aggression and the provocation to war that the assassination represents.

Quakers have a deep respect for “that of God” in each of us and all of creation.

War is the opposite of a reverence for life, and Quakers have a long commitment to working for the peace and justice that takes away the occasion for war.

As we enter a dangerous time of a walk up to war, we remind all who will listen that “War Is Not the Answer” and, in fact, it assures cataclysmic devastation and generations of retaliatory vengeance. We only need reference the U.S. “endless war” since 2003 in the Middle East.

Countless loss of life and cultural and environmental disruption have provided no substantial improvement in the welfare of those for whom the war was supposedly “liberating,” and it has only assured the mutual antagonisms in the region that are now culminating in the current Iranian crisis.

Quakers and millions of others throughout the world will continue to speak out against an escalation to war in Iran and the futility and carnage of war in general.

Congress is now taking legislative steps to prevent war in Iran and to reassert its constitutional responsibility to alone declare war.

Our strong united and persistent voice in opposition to war will be heard by our Congressional representatives, and we can and will stop this march to another tragic war.

Tom Ewell

Clinton