When We Believed: Upcoming Liveblogging with Author Nathan Gonzalez

by Sheri Divers [courtesy of Blog for America]

Nathan Gonzalez is former political director of Latinos for America and a former Dean for America staffer in Iowa and New Mexico. He is author of Engaging Iran: The Rise of a Middle East Powerhouse and America’s Strategic Choice. 

It’s early January, 2004, and I’m standing outside of a food packaging plant in Southwestern Iowa in below freezing temperatures. You can tell who I am by my Dean for America pin, but little more. My eyes are barely visible; my breath freezing under the inadequate scarf I had brought from California. 

Finally, a young Latino worker comes out, and I rush to him, asking in Spanish, “Can I bother you for a second?”

Back then, the war had been raging for less than a year, but most Democratic candidates were beginning to switch their campaign tone from decidedly pro-war, to something of an anti-war position. It was interesting to watch. For me, I had chosen to support Howard Dean, not because I am a pacifist (I am not), but because he made the most sense. His opposition to the Iraq War was not based on ideology, but on facts. On issues of war and peace, there should be nothing more sacred than facts.

It’s not winter anymore, and I’m now sitting comfortably in California. Yet the anticipation of yet another unnecessary conflict, this time with Iran, is even more distressing than ever. To keep my spirits up, I remind myself that the difference between the supporters of Howard Dean’s 2004 campaign back then, and now, is that the conflict with Iran has not yet started. We can avert it if we put the same effort into avoiding this war, as we did into opposing the current one after it had started. I was standing outside in the middle of an Iowa winter trying to make this country a better one, and I wasn’t the only one. Maybe this time, we can score a victory: a foreign policy that is reasonable.  

Come join me here for a live blog on Wednesday, September 26th at 8:30pm EST. I will be discussing my book, Engaging Iran: The Rise of a Middle East Powerhouse and America’s Strategic Choice (Praeger SI). Let’s bring to the table ideas on how we can avert a conflict with Iran. No defeatism allowed.

-Nathan Gonzalez