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
