I want to congratulate you on assuming a position where, years from nowwhether you are in a nursing home or on your deathbed surrounded by enjoyed onesyou may either pride yourself on the times you raised your right-hand man or reduced it, or agonize over the weight of your conscience up until your final breath. I write this letter because I think every human requirements suggestions of the past to learn from others mistakes, lest their actions result in a future where their grandchildren and descendants repent to confess their familial ties. Let me be short. Throughout life, individuals consistently deal with crossroads of choicemoments that require a yes or no to unfolding events. These decisions, depending on the authority behind them, can alter the course of history. I will share the stories of a few individuals whose options formed their historic legacies, hoping we might answer this concern: How can a political system make it possible for atrocities while enabling the wrongdoers to live on without a shred of regret? The First Group: Those Who Said Yes to the Mirage of Power Adolf Eichmann, the Infamous Hitlerian German Official at the Outset of World War II Adolf Eichmann, head of the Jewish Affairs area of the Reich Main Security Office and administrator of Nazi death camps, was caught in Argentina after the war, attempted in an extremely publicized trial in Israel, and performed. During his trial in Jerusalem, Eichmann was required to answer for every yes he had actually uttered in service to Hitlers National Socialist program. As Hannah Arendt, the Jewish thinker and author of * Eichmann in Jerusalem *, observed: Eichmann was no monster, no devil, no Macbeth, no Richard III hellbent on villainy. He was neither base nor sadisticjust terrifyingly, catastrophically * common *. Arendt argued that Eichmanns sole motivation was to climb up the ranks of Hitlers regime with diligence and dedicationa drive not naturally criminal. Eichmann lacked imagination, rendering him incapable of empathy, vital thought, or grasping the effects of his actions. He was not foolish; his sheer thoughtlessness transformed him into one of historys greatest lawbreakers. He never ever really understood what he was doing. Arendt dissected his reliance on clichs and administrative jargon, exposing his inability to believe separately or confront truth. She unwinded the self-deception and detachment from truth that penetrated both Eichmanns mind and the wider German society of his time. Robert McNamara The American military strategist who increased through the ranks to end up being U.S. Secretary of Defense. Throughout World War II, he masterminded the ruthless firebombing of Japanese cities. Days before the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, he deployed hundreds of planes over Tokyo, incinerating 60% of the city and its occupants with napalm. His infamous remark: Had the Allies lost the war, I would have been tried as a war bad guy at Nuremberg instead of the Nazi officers. McNamaras reckoning was long delayed. He made the Gulf of Tonkin incidenta false claim of Vietnamese attacks on the USS * Maddox * to justify war with North Vietnam. This lie fired up a lengthy dispute that declared millions of Vietnamese lives and 10s of countless American ones. Forty years later on, McNamara admitted the USS * Maddox * had actually never ever existed. Declassified files showed no Vietnamese boats had attacked U.S. ships. However his criminal activities did not end there. As the longest-serving U.S. Secretary of Defense (19611968), he was the primary architect of the Vietnam Wars escalation. Decades later on, he admitted to doubts about the effectiveness of Americas ruthless bombing campaigns in North Vietnam, admitting he had actually never ever thought they would succeed.McNamara admitted that he understood the futility of the Vietnam War, however as a government strategist, he continued the dispute to check brand-new military strategies! Years before his death, in the documentary * The Fog of War *, he assessed those ridiculous actions with discomfort, embarassment, and regret. Colin Powell Colin Powell, who died in 2021 at age 84 from COVID-19, was the first Black U.S. Secretary of State and played an essential role in forming White House foreign policy in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. On February 5, 2003, during a UN Security Council meeting, he defended the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Holding up a vial of white powder and mentioning unnamed Iraqi sources, he declared, There can be no doubt that Saddam Hussein has biological weapons and the capability to quickly produce more. By September 13, 2004, Powell confessed to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the sources behind his UN speech were wrong and that it was not likely weapons of mass destruction would be found in Iraq. He later on acknowledged that his case to the Council had been false which the intelligence he counted on was intentionally misleading. However this admission came far too late to validate the hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians and American soldiers killed. Linda Thomas-Greenfield As Bidens UN envoy, she claimsin a story only she attests tothat throughout the Rwandan genocide, when Hutu extremists massacred Tutsis (after believing their president had actually been assassinated by the opposing group), she was captured by Hutus. With a weapon to her head, she pleaded that she was American, not Tutsi, exaggerating her thick Louisiana accent to protect her release. Yet this survivor of a dreadful genocide has repeatedly raised her right hand in the UN to veto ceasefire resolutions in Gaza, enabling the continuous slaughter of Palestinians. Years from now, a book titled * Ms. Greenfield in Gaza * may document how, like Eichmann, she joked with her children at the table after releasing ruthless orders, her mind fixed just on climbing the ladderperhaps to end up being U.S. Secretary of State or even the first Black female presidentwhile the raising of her hand and the deaths of countless females and kids in Gaza stirred no feeling in her. Just as Eichmann, McNamara, and Powell never ever contemplated the repercussions of their actions while in power. Sequel: Those Who Said No to Power Nelson Mandela was commander of the African National Congress (ANC)s armed wing. At the time, the ANC had intensified public protests and civil projects against apartheid, with Mandela at the forefront. He repeatedly stated that, in spite of his belief in nonviolent resistance, the brutality of the apartheid regime required him to adopt guerrilla strategies. After his arrest, he was sentenced to life in prison and for years was identified a terrorist by the West. During his 27-year imprisonment, he was provided flexibility several times in exchange for condemning his peoples equipped struggleoffers he always refused. Upon his release and election as president, his innovative, peace-driven management ethically disarmed the Western world. Aaron Bushnell A 25-year-old U.S. Air Force serviceman who set himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C., to oppose Americas complicity in Gazas genocide. In a final declaration, he wrote: I am an active-duty member of the U.S. Air Force. I will no longer be complicit in genocide. I will engage in an extreme act of protestbut compared to what Palestinians withstand at the hands of their colonizers, it is not severe at all. Bushnell sought no promotions or power. He felt compelled to act so that history would not count him as a cog in this genocidal machine.Final To the Honorable Linda Thomas-Greenfield, New U.S. Representative to the United Nations: Now you, too, wield the power to perpetuate the greatest evils of our time merely by raising your handall without considering yourself evil. This power sustains the genocide in Gaza and fuels wars throughout the Middle East, all to help a man called Netanyahu. A man so consumed by his political survival that he overlooks the future of his own Israeli people and the self-respect of the revered Jewish faith. If you fail to reflect on what I have actually written today, years from nowwhen you are old and frailyou will undoubtedly dwell on this moment. You will think of what you might have done to prevent the slaughter of countless human beings, people whose deaths hinged on the increase of your hand. Consider this: Will future generations remember you as an Eichmann, a McNamara, or a Colin Powellthose who said yes to unlimited crime, later on drowning in regret over missed opportunities and irreversible complicity? Or will they honor you as a Nelson Mandela or an Aaron Bushnellthose who stated no to complicity in atrocity, earning the eternal pride of a mindful humankind? It is a simple choice: Yes or No?. This article very first appeared/also appeared in Tehran Times

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