Dear Editor,
The embargos which President Obama is calling for against Iran are just the initial stages of an important struggle for arms control and an end to rogue states trying to endanger the security of world peace. Iran has clearly defied the United Nations and world opinion, which is universally against its development of strategic nuclear weapons. Iran falsely claims that their nuclear development is for peaceful purposes. Obama has set a course which could lead to direct military confrontation between the USA and Iran and he is not budging one inch because his position will be vindicated by events which will unfold in the near future, when all peace-loving countries will back his efforts to the detriment of the dictatorial government of Iran. Even President Lula of Brazil has said that he will warn Iran that they are violating international law and urge them to desist from continuing the development of a nuclear bomb.
Editor, the history of Iran is one of convoluted byzantine politics over the last six decades; the whole cycle of disruption and violence started with the overthrow of the elected leader of Iran, Mohammed Mossadegh in 1953 by the CIA and its allies, after he had nationalized the Anglo-Iranian oil company which had a monopoly on all Iranian oil and was exploiting the country. The return of the Shah, (Reza Pahlavi) resulted in years of dictatorship with the repression of any kind of democratic norms. The Shah, supported by successive American administrations, became a symbol of failed American policy as he spent the national income on military hardware, his own personal extravagance (his coronation as Emperor cost Iran almost US$300 million) and an internal network of control all tied together by corruption and greed. When this unpopular Pahlavi regime was overthrown in early 1979, he could find no country to take him because he had become such an embarrassment; most countries also remembered that he was the one who always tried to drive up the price of oil thus putting economic pressure on most of the world’s population to satisfy his own spending outrages. So, Editor, the departure of the Shah left Iran in a virtual state of anarchy and chaos, ruled by council of Islamic clergy led by Ayatollah Khomeini; their concept of rule was to galvanize Islamic law (their interpretation) and its fanatical supporters in an orgy of anti-Americanism and anti-Western hysteria, resulting in violations of international law like the seizing of the American embassy and the holding of American hostages for almost two years.
With the accession of President Reagan in 1980, the Iranian regime released the hostages and within a short period was attacked by Iraq and entered a war which lasted for almost eight years claiming the lives of almost a million citizens from the two countries. The war caused devastation and huge losses of income for the people of Iran, caused an economy to fall into shambles and destabilized the region. Since that war and the fall of Saddam Hussein, Iran has taken a path of intransigence in relation to most of its neighbours, and has interferred in the affairs of many states in the Middle East, especially in Lebanon, a country which is the key to peace and stability in that region. Iran has for years fermented and financed terrorism in the Middle East and elsewhere, killing and maiming innocent victims by the thousands. Terrorists from all over the world train and organize in secret locations inside Iran, fully aided and abetted by this rogue government.
Internally, the regime has stifled opposition, rigged elections, murdered dissidents and destroyed any chance for democratic norms to survive. This regime has spent billions of oil money on armaments and billions more on the development of nuclear weapons while their people sink more and more into poverty and a lower standard of living. Iran is a place where neighbours and even family units spy on each other in the interest of the state apparatus; where dissidents living abroad are threatened into silence by reprisals against family members living in Iran; where religious freedom is repressed to the extent that people are forced to flee the country; and where religious zealots plunder the national treasury to promote hate and violence against innocent victims. The regime has indeed caused Iran to reach the stage of being a rogue state, ignoring world opinion and United Nations’ resolutions and even sanctions against their efforts to acquire a nuclear bomb.
Editor, since President Obama has taken office he has tried repeatedly to find a common ground with Iran, but to no avail; he has bent over backwards to find a way to friendly relations and a common sense approach to the problems, but to no avail; he has tried to persuade Iran’s trading partners like China to change the direction of that country’s nuclear programme, but again to no avail. Iran has just gotten more belligerent and more outspoken in its insistence that it will follow the nuclear path, probably thinking that Obama is like President Carter whom they pushed around in the late 1970s when they held American diplomats and flouted international law with abandon.
The paper tigers who rule Iran are making a grave mistake because President Obama is proving that he is no push-over and is ready to use the power at his disposal to gradually force Iran into compliance with UN resolutions; there will be no let-up on Obama’s part until this rogue nation desists in its attempt to acquire nuclear weapons. President Obama will show the world the power he will use resolutely to force these despots into abandoning their criminal intent in acquiring nuclear arms or face the wrath of America’s (and its allies) armed might engaged in a just cause for the safety of that region and the world.
Yours faithfully,
Cheddi (Joey) Jagan (Jr)
