'Read a few more history books,' Canada-born Israeli minister advises millennials uneasy with Iran war
OTTAWA — One of Israeli's highest-ranking politicians says she understands that many people could be feeling déjà vu as the West faces another war in the Middle East over the threat of weapons of mass destruction.
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The Toronto-born Sharren Haskel, now Israel's junior minister of foreign affairs, was herself a young enlistee in Israel's armed forces (specifically the border police) when then U.S. president George W. Bush and a coalition of allies invaded Iraq in 2003, vowing to destroy weapons of mass destruction, that were later found to be non-existent.
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'I've seen things that I don't wish anyone to see,' Haskel, 41, told National Post on Monday.
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But public opinion studies have documented an 'Iraq War hangover' driving anti-war attitudes among millennials, born between 1981 and 1996.
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A 2019 Ipsos study study tracking more than 16,000 millennials across 16 countries, including the U.S., found that three-quarters believed that most wars could be avoided. Respondents from war-affected countries were more hopeful than others that future wars could be avoided.
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But Haskel said that Iran poses a much graver threat today than Iraq did two decades ago.
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'The two cases are extremely different,' she said, noting that Iran's advanced nuclear enrichment and ballistics missile programs have been well-documented by several international bodies and governments, and that they pose a 'double existential threat' to international security.
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Prior to this month's Israel and U.S.-led attacks on Iranian nuclear sites, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) estimated that Iran had enough raw material for nine nuclear weapons.
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Haskel said that the fear of a repeat of the disastrous Iraq war has made the U.S. and other Western countries too hesitant to use force against an intransigent Iran.
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'We've seen in recent years, and because of (Iraq), how the international community have been chasing up a diplomatic solution,' said Haskel.
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'But unfortunately, this enemy that you're facing was growing to a monstrous size while deceiving the international community.'
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Iran signed what looked to be a breakthrough nuclear deal with the U.S. and other world powers in 2015, but it has repeatedly violated the terms of this agreement. The IAEA reported in 2023 that Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium was 30 times more than the maximum permitted under the agreement.
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