On Feb. 22 at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Atlanta, best-selling author and former New York Times foreign correspondent Stephen Kinzer spoke about his 22 city tour promoting his book, Overthrow, and raising awareness about the Bush administration's new policy against Iran.
"The Bush Administration has adopted a confrontational policy against Iran, including the threat of military force," said Kinzer.
"Americans are being told that Iran is on the brink of developing nuclear weapons, supports terrorism, is helping to kill American soldiers in Iraq, and is determined to destroy Israel. Many of these claims echo the language used to justify the U.S. invasion against Iraq and the rest on similarly dubious evidence."
Kinzer believes that attacking Iran would prove dire to the United States and only cause extremists in the Middle East to grow stronger in violence towards America.
In "A New American Approach to Iran," Kilzner's new article, he said "Attacking Iran would turn that country's oppression, who are now highly unpopular at home, into heroes of Islamic resistance; give them a strong incentive to launch a violent counter-campaign against American interests around the world."
He also added that the war would "disrupt the flow of Middle East petroleum in ways that could wreak havoc on Western economies."
Kinzer went on to say that America has this notion that what is right for America is right for every other country, but the truth is that what is right for America is not always appropriate for other countries. "Somewhere along the way America decided to enforce their beliefs on other countries as the right way to run things."
Touring with Kinzer was Fatemeh Keshavarz, a Persian and Comparative Literature professor at Washington University in St. Louis. She believes that our government uses politics of fear to keep the people from being accurately informed about what is going on in Iran.
"Our perception of Iran has become an abnormality," Keshavarz said. "This makes it possible for our President to say that Iran is our biggest threat…we are not supposed to hear anything positive about Iran."
What can be done to prevent an attack in the first place? According to Kinzer, fight without war. "You must negotiate with the countries you don't get along with; you don't negotiate with your friends," Kinzer said.
He says that if the Bush Administration believes strongly that Iran is a threat than there should be "a direct, bilateral conversation with Iran." According to Kinzer things do not have to continue the way that they have for the past several years; they can change.
Kinzer believes that there are many reasons why diplomacy is the best solution with the United States and Iran; there is still time to talk with Iran. U.S. Intelligence agencies say that Iran has halted its covert nuclear weapons program.
The U.S needs to negotiate. Negotiations must meet criteria that are important to the U.S. and Iran. A military attack on Iran would be foolish and dangerous. This would risk starting another military disaster like Iraq, therefore convincing Iran that it does need nuclear weapons.
There are many proactive things Americans can do to promote peace with Iran according to Kinzer's team:
1) Ask your Members of Congress to support the newly introduced diplomacy bill, H.R. 5056. Do this simply by writing your congressman a brief letter or by calling them at the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121.
2) Meet with the staff of your Senators or Representatives. As a constituent you can request a meeting with the staff of your Member of Congress at the district office near where you live. Also coordinate with others in your area by contacting Carah Ong at cong@armscontolcenter.org or Babak Talebi at btalebu@niacouncil.org.
3) Write letters to the editor on Iran. Simply by contacting your local newspapers Letters Editor in regards to Iran you can get the word out about Iran.
4) Stay informed. You can sign up at www.FollyofAttackingIran.org and receive a daily summary of major news related to Iran and the United States foreign policy.
5) Call into radio talk shows. By asking a question you can get your point across about real diplomacy in Iran.
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