Statement on the US-Israel-Iran War
Board of Directors Peace Corps Iran Association
March 4, 2026
Fifty years ago (between 1962 and 1976) we served as Peace Corps Volunteers in Iran. We worked in Iranian schools and offices. We lived in Iranian communities. We earned salaries comparable to those of our Iranian counterparts. We learned to speak Farsi and to appreciate the depths of Iranian friendship and hospitality. Some of us even married Iranians. Our love and appreciation of many things Iranian has endured over the decades.
We know enough history to know that our country has sometimes been a strong ally and sometimes a foolish enemy of Iranian national aspirations for a better life with dignity, freedom and prosperity. We are pained to witness now some of the worst strands of that history repeated and amplified. Our country has become the major party to a war of choice against Iran, launched in defiance of American laws and the US Constitution as well as international laws and structures. The war is highly destabilizing to regional and likely global economic and political security.
We are deeply sympathetic to the aspirations of the Iranian people for a government that reflects the values animating recent anti-government demonstrations: Women’s rights, life and freedom (zan, zendigi, azadi). We are also deeply aware of the limitations of American military power when it comes to affecting positive change in foreign societies. We are mindful of the costs to international order when laws and conventions are willfully violated. We know that it is easy to blow things up, and ever so complicated to create and build on solid foundations for a better future.
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