Obama's Opportunity
Stephanie Kraft's exploration of the American obsession with Iran ("We Forget, Iran Remembers," April 30) begs comment. Our government is responsible for a half-century history of imperial meddling in Iran's affairs and disruption in its political life—of overthrowing an elected government, installing Shah Pahlavi, who plundered the country and whose secret police menaced and killed its people—and therefore has a great burden of never-acknowledged responsibility for the rise to power of elements quite hostile to the U.S. Our navy has long hovered in war-like posture off the Iran coast with as many as three carrier groups. In 1988, our cruiser Vincennes shot down an Iranian Airbus 300, killing all 290 of its civilian passengers.
As a traveler in Iran, I've witnessed both the evidence of the Shah's abuses and the tenacious friendliness of Iranians to the American people. Zionists, conveniently and in a self-serving way, mistranslate President Ahmandinejad's hostility toward the Israeli government as anti-Semitism, which it is not. What he seeks is an end to that government's occupation and abuse of the Palestinian people.
President Obama has the opportunity, indeed the obligation, to begin his promised dialogue with Iran with an apology. He must also be aware that de-escalating Bush/Cheney Muslim fundamentalist recruitment and establishing comprehensive peace in the Middle East requires a truly even-handed drive for settlement in Palestine.
Carl Doerner
Conway
*
We, The People…
On May 21, leaders of national organizations dedicated to the defense of liberty and the Constitution are retracing the 1910 travels of the global financiers who quietly gathered at a private resort at Jekyll Island, Georgia to covertly plot the creation of what we know today as the privately-owned (and unconstitutional), "Federal Reserve System." Next week, freedom leaders travel by train from New Jersey to that notable location to join their organizations in support of the upcoming historic "Continental Congress 2009" initiative. CC2009 will be a multi-week assembly of delegates from the 50 states to formally document a century of constitutional violations and the federal government's refusal to be held accountable to the laws of the nation. Among the violations are the federal bailouts, which use public money for unlawful expenditures for private benefit.
The CC2009 assembly will recommend specific actions the people can take to peacefully restore constitutional order. These actions may well include a nationwide call for the people to (lawfully) withdraw all financial support from the government until the Constitution is fully obeyed. To learn more, visit www.wethepeople.org.
Don Spector
via email
