Ahmadi-Nejad’s letter to Bush

The open letter to George W. Bush, from the Iranian President Mahmood Ahmadi-Nejad, has been published in today’s Guardian. Read here.

The letter is seen as device to encourage the United State to engage in direct dialogue with Tehran. But it’s not a balanced or friendly text, more a condescending ticking-off to Washington. It will certainly be red meat to the many apologists for radical Islam, who reside within the leftish fraternity in the west. Ahmadi-Nejad is clearly playing to these factions.

It’s a clever ruse, which will further divide the fractious American body politic, as the drums of war emanate, once again, from the White House. Much of the American left have been suckered into turning a blind eye to the tyranny of Radical Islam. They criticise America’s human rights abuses, yet defend the sovereignty of undemocratic totalitarian regimes that allow their citizens, no political or religious freedoms.

Guantanamo Bay should be condemned. It’s abhorrent to the post-enlightenment foundations of the United States. The practice of Extraordinary Rendition is equally repugnant to anyone with reasoned sensibilities. Yet it is a disgrace that American practices are subject to criticism, yet so many are silent on the abuses of Saddam Hussein, the Taliban, and various other odious Islamic Regimes.

Let us not forget, when we read Ahmadi-Nejad’s patronising reprimand, that Iran offers its people little in the way of political representation. Let us remember that blogger-journalist Arash Sigarchi, was sentenced to 14-years in jail for criticising the Iranian regime, and Mojtaba Saminejad was arrested (along with twenty other writers), and jailed, for calling for religious reform within the country. Let us also not forget that Mehrdad Lohrasbi, a student protester, was jailed for 15-years in 1999. Is this really a country that can chastise the United States?

Readers will know I’m no supporter of the Bush administration. Bush, and his cabal of corruptible, self-serving, cronies, have cause incalculable damage to America’s global standing and honour. The American response to 9/11 has been imprecise, strategically incompetent, and counter-productive. But America is still more liberal, more tolerant, and morally superior than the theocratic tyranny of Iran.

I don’t support, excuse, or apologise, for the misdemeanours of American foreign policy. I didn’t support the Iraq War. And I despise the climate of fear, and the unconstitutional increase in surveillance, the White House has encouraged since 9/11; but I would still rather reside in the United States, than be a citizen of Ahmadi-Nejad’s Iran.

In the letter, Ahmadi-Nejad highlights the poverty that exists in the increasing disparate American society, ignoring the rocketing unemployment, he himself, has failed to address. The whole letter is designed to censure the U.S., yet is completely ignorant of it’s own hypocrisy, and the vacancy of its moral credibility.

I had great hopes for the letter. I hoped it would broker some peace between the two states, but Ahmadi-Nejad has missed a great opportunity to build a bridge, preferring to pander to President Bush’s domestic political opponents.

A lot of what Ahmadi-Nejad says is right. America itself, has fuelled much of the anti-Americanism that exists around the world, and its stance against Iran’s nuclear ambition is duplicitous, but these debates already exist in the Western body politic. Westerners are allowed political freedom, and enjoy a free-press, so in highlighting what we already know, and what many of us already think, Ahmadi-Nejad merely reveals the absence of just these freedoms, in his own country.

I don’t know what to think on the subject of military action against Iran. As was the case in Iraq, I want to see an abominable regime toppled, and I want to see people free from tyranny. But we must ensure we have moral authority when taking action. We must ensure we are not sheep to the agendas of oil and weapons companies. And we must ensure we appreciate the long-term consequences, and subsequent responsibilities, such an endeavour would entail. I don’t believe, if the US bombs Iranian facilities, that it will be a sanitised exercise, free of retribution or further bloodshed. We would have to be prepared for a long-term, multi-theatre, infantry involvement, in the wider Middle East and Central Asia.

I have also seen little evidence to support claims that Iran is developing a nuclear weapons programme. The argument for war has not been adequately made. We would defend Israel if it were attacked, and the concept of a quick, high-tech, pre-emptive war has been discredited.

The time is ripe for top-level bilateral negotiations between Tehran and Washington. This letter will not further this goal, so it is therefore, unwelcome. War must be avoided, lest we be mired in another war of attrition with insurgents and terrorists. We have to realise, that while we must support and finance, democratic movements, we cannot not impose them on an unwilling people, at the point of a sword. As unpalatable as it may be, we must engage with Iran, and work with this odious regime, to foster greater political and religious freedoms for the Iranian people.