Senator:

I read your Jan. 7 editorial in The Washington Post with something close to despair. Do you really believe your talking points, or do you just hope that your constituents will?

I’d like to address a few of your points.

You call the president’s decision to assassinate General Soleimani, a representative of a sovereign nation with whom we are not at war, as bold. Bold? How about misguided? Or reckless? You may not care for international law, but are you willing to start a war to make a statement?

You say, “Soleimani was only a ‘general’ according to Iran’s brutal regime.” Is there a new rating system that allows for assassinations? Thugs are fair game?

How does President Trump rate on your thug scale? What about Duterte? He not only orders law enforcement to target drug dealers but justifies killing addicts. Bin Salman got away with ordering the murder of a dissenting journalist.

Who decides which brutal dictators are taken out?

You lambast the Iran deal and Obama. The Obama administration wasn’t alone in signing this agreement, and according to inspectors, the deal was working to curb Iran’s nuclear capabilities.

You prefer sanctions, which have a disproportionate effect on the ordinary citizens. Have you considered how poverty and hopelessness fuels hatred that fuels terrorism?

You lauded the president’s “bold decision,” and said it “upended the supreme leader’s assumption that Iran could decimate international norms of behavior without consequence.” Oh, what a lovely example of irony! You believe your Commander in Chief can decimate international norms without consequence.

Finally, you write, “Iran cannot afford an all-out war.” Is that supposed to make us feel safer? Look what ISIS and al Qaeda have done without any state structure.

King George didn’t think much of the ragtag army under General Washington, either. The American colonies couldn’t defeat one of the greatest powers in the world, could they? Yet, they did.

If there is a war with Iran, it started with us. We upset the balance of power between Iran and Iraq. We pulled out of an agreement that was working. And we drew the first blood with these ill-considered assassinations.

Please, don’t underestimate the danger of an aggrieved nation.