We have a new hell brewing in the Middle East. When I looked at photos of Lebanese mothers and fathers holding their torn-apart children, my heart broke. My opponent, Darrell Issa, is of Lebanese heritage. These could be his own kin being blown apart by weapons the United States has provided to Israel.
First and foremost, we must stop the killing of innocent children on both sides. As a parent, I recall when my children were younger and sometimes a battle would ignite between them, with each claiming the other had started it. I would have been insane if I'd given each of them weapons to use against one another to "resolve" their disagreement. No, instead I demanded that they both "Stop it!" Then I'd call a "time out" and send them to their rooms to calm down.
Is international diplomacy so different? Can't we use some old-fashioned Mommy Strategy here? I don't care who started this argument, as a mother I am screaming, "Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!" I am calling on Mr. Issa to call for an immediate cease fire. Let's figure out how to end this before it turns into a nuclear war. We need his leadership to bring all parties to the table to work out a resolution that will not require the massacre of innocent children. Surely the money Mr. Issa's campaign gets from those corporations that would profit from another war can't be more important to him than the lives of innocent children, some who could be his own flesh and blood.
In an interview on C-Span's Washington Journal, on 7/26, Mr. Issa showed that he is well informed on this situation and I was happy to see that he was not blindly endorsing Israel's incursion into Lebanon. I implore him to put aside politics in this crisis and show true leadership by joining his colleague from Ohio, Dennis Kucinich, in supporting H. Con. Res. 450, calling on both sides to immediately end hostilities and engage international cooperation to mediate the crisis.
While I disagree with Mr. Issa on many things, which is why I am running to unseat him in Congress, I am hoping that we can take this issue out of the debate by agreeing that the United States must use all of it's power to demand an immediate ceasefire and to negotiate a peace that will be lasting by its fairness to all parties. What Mr. Issa and his colleagues do NOW will make the difference in whether or not this conflict ignites a nuclear war. We can't wait until after the election to put the brakes on this world-wide catastrophe.