SAN FRANCISCO -- Like many Americans, Warriors coach Steve Kerr is disgusted with the United States’ use of military aggression this week, concerned about its ramifications and profoundly skeptical of the premise stated by President Donald Trump.
“I’m worried that we’re going to end up in another war,” Kerr said before the Warriors-Pistons game Saturday night at Chase Center.
“So, I try to use my Twitter platform to remind people to do their homework before just blindly waving the flag and get ourselves into another mess, like we did in Iraq.”
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President Trump on Friday ordered, before notifying Congress, an airstrike that resulted in killing Gen. Qassim Soleimani, a top military commander in Iran.
Shortly after Soleimani’s death was confirmed, Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, vowed revenge, to which the U.S. responded by sending 3,000 troops into the Middle East.
Kerr, who has been an outspoken critic of President Trump’s conduct, referred to the attack via Twitter eight times Friday.
“We have to be very careful now with what we’re being told,” Kerr said. “If we’re led into another war, the implications for so many families, so many people, are so drastic that we all need to understand what’s happening and support our troops by making sure we press our government to do the right thing.”
Kerr specifically recalled two of the occasions in which American citizens were “misled by our government,” citing wars in Vietnam and Iraq.
Roughly 18 months after the 9/11 terrorist attack on U.S. soil, President George W. Bush initiated the war in Iraq, gaining support by exploiting the wave of patriotism that followed the attack. There was not, however, any evidence of Iraqi involvement.
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With Iran in the midst of three days of national mourning, demonstrators denouncing the airstrike and the State Department urging American citizens to leave the region, the message from the Trump White House is that the airstrike was a necessary preemptive move to repel a potential terrorist attack against the U.S.
Kerr said he supports the veterans but also urges Americans to look deeper than simple, seductive messages from the government.
“What would be even more supportive is to not get involved and not send soldiers overseas to unwinnable, unnecessary wars in the first place,” Kerr said. “That’s how we can best support our men and women who are representing us.”