Sept
24, 2007
Los
Angeles, California
President George W. Bush
The
White House
Washington, D. C.
Dear Mr.
President:
I send
heartfelt greetings to you as a loyal Persian-American who
loves both Iran and America, in the name of those who
recognize the true spirit of Iran as manifested in the 2,500
year old Persian Monarchy beginning with Cyrus the Great, as
well as those in my adopted homeland whose roots are firmly
planted in the Divinely-guided history of these blessed
United States as begun by God through Washington, Madison,
and Jefferson.
At the same
time, I write you today to express concern over two
developments which provide a larger context of meaning for
the darkening relationship between Iran and the United
States at this most dangerous and pivotal crossroad in human
history.
The first of
these developments is what I consider to be the regrettable
decision of both the United States and the world community
to allow Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the President of the so-called
Islamic Republic of Iran, to enter this country to deliver
an address to Columbia University in New York, and to
utilize the United Nations to spread the poisonous,
defamatory rhetoric of the IRI regime in an international
forum which should simply recognize that Mr. Ahmadinejad and
the despicable government he leads, are concurrently
illegitimate entities--legally, politically, morally, and
historically.
The crimes
of the Islamic Republic of Iran since 1979 are too numerous
and well-known to chronicle in detail here. These include
the murder of Iranian Prime Minister Amir Abbas Hoveyda, and
my Father, General Ali Neshat, Commander of the Shah's
Imperial Guard, in April of 1979. Since these murders over
28 years ago, the Iranian nation has known nothing but war
and rumor of international war; internal tyranny complete
with comprehensive suspension of Constitutional rights; the
extermination of human rights advocates, independent
journalists, and political activists not vetted by the IRI's
Council of Guardians; a systematic attempt to erase Iran's
pre-Islamic history from the minds of almost 2 generations
born since the death of my Father; a tragic war of 8 years
duration between Iran and Iraq that has claimed over 1
million lives; and now, the implementation of a recklessly
confrontational foreign policy by Mr. Ahmadinehad and the
Mullahs which threatens to bring the Iranian Nation to the
brink of nuclear annihilation and holocaust.
It begs the
question: How can it be that the leader of this criminal
regime is now in the United States to address Columbia
University, the United Nations, and the American people,
with a chronicled litany of odious crimes more extensive
than those of the leader of any other government on the face
of the earth, as perpetually documented by Amnesty
International and the Human Rights Watch? Mr. President,
can your government, the American people, and the world
community actually watch this criminal's demonic
presentation on your TV networks, even as he continues to
drink from a cup filled with lies and hatred, brewed
with the blood of millions of innocents killed or yet to be
killed? Is this not mentality of Munich, "all over
again?"
At the same
time, there is a second development which threatens to
simultaneously engulf Iran, the United States, and the
world, in global warfare and flaming conflagration. It
would take place if you allowed yourself to be the
implementing force in a plan which threatens both my
historic homeland and my adopted homeland. This plan calls
for a deliberate, preemptive military attack on Iran by the
United States, with the complete support of
neo-conservatives in America, the international oil
consortiums, and the government of Israel.
I cannot
possibly overemphasize how disastrous such a course of
action would be. It would kill thousands, perhaps millions
of innocent Iranians. It would cause untold political
blowback and retaliation against the United States
worldwide. It would destroy what remains of the political,
economic, educational, historical, and cultural
infrastructure of Iran which predates the rise of the
Islamic Republic of Iran's Reign of Terror in
1979. And finally, it would achieve the exact opposite
result of what the advocates of this misguided policy say it
would achieve: Mr. Ahmadinejad, now on the edge of
political extinction, would most assuredly receive a renewed
and visceral support from Iranians across the political
spectrum and around the globe, in reaction to the brutality
and apocalyptic character of a massive military assault on
Iran. How can such results be in the interest of American
and Iranian nationalists and patriots? Mr.
President, you must not be remembered in history as the
architect of this unfolding tragedy. Stop this course of
action, before events careen out of control, and envelop the
entire civilized world.
My message
is clear. We cannot appease a murderer like Ahmadinejad or
the crimson-stained IRI regime he presently leads. Neither
can the opposite course of a misguided policy of military
preemption of Iran be endorsed by decent Iranians and
Americans as the solution to what has happened in these last
28 years.
The
alternative course of action--and the only course of
action--is clear. Continue to diplomatically isolate Mr.
Ahmadinejad and his band of thugs and consorts in Tehran;
apply back-channel diplomacy of the highest order to
increase the economic and political pressure on the IRI
regime among the nations of the world; aggressively pursue
the financial assets of the Mullahs through the
international courts in assessed penalties for the
cumulative crimes against humanity they have committed since
1979; and support indigenous Iranian freedom movements and
fighters on an ongoing basis, as they risk their lives to
reclaim Iran for its traditions, and its people.
Time and
history are on the side of freedom, and victory for the
forces of freedom, in Iran. Do not preempt these
inevitabilities by pursuing either appeasement of
Ahmadinejad and his regime on the one hand, or an attack on
Iran being urged upon you by forces who could care less
about innocent life and the preservation of an autonomous,
independent Iranian nation rooted in 2,500 years of history.
Pursue my
recommended course of action, Mr. President. And as you are
fond of saying:
Stay the course.
Shirin Neshat, President
Los
Angeles, California
