Open letter to the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) on Obama's sanctions against Iran

The National Iranian American Council (NIAC) was  invited by the White House to witness President Obama sign the latest US unilateral sanctions against Iran. Although opposed to the new sanctions, NIAC accepted the invitation. The following is an open letter by Reza Saeidi, an Iranian antiwar activist in the US, responding to the report of Forough Parvizian-Yazdani NIAC’s representative who attended the occasion, met with President Obama at the White House and urged him to adopt a stronger condemnation of “human rights” violations in Iran.

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Dear Ms. Yazdani,

Where are the worst human rights violations, in Egypt or Saudi Arabia, in Azerbaijan or China? Please be real! If the US is worried about human rights, they should be among the first to be prosecuted, due to the innocent people who are being killed in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, even as we speak!

Which human rights are you talking about? Who considers the situation of the Native Americans, who have been plundered by white European settlers since they invaded this land more than 200 years ago. What reward was given to the Native Americans for rescuing the colonialists from their first deathly cold winter and their own lack of proper preparation? Their lands were taken from them through wars, in which women and children were massacred alongside Indian men, or through deceitful treaties, their language and religion were wiped away. What about the hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of Africans who were captured and brought to the US in chains and laboured as slaves to build America into a world power?

The psychological scars brought about by the brutality of racism under which African-Americans suffer and which still affect that minority today can only be diagnosed as post traumatic stress disorder. Even with a black man in the White House, there are still more African-American men incarcerated today than were in chains during the height of the Slavery Era of the Old South.
 
Which human rights are you talking about? Perhaps you aren't seeing history as a whole, but are only looking at one segment at a time, or you've just forgotten the past and only look at one segment of what is happening for a specific period in our modern times.

Many historians choose to focus on the crimes of the Nazis during WWII, while ignoring and minimizing almost exactly the same crimes committed by Israel against today's Palestinians. Today Israeli crimes include a continuous occupation of Palestinian lands for more than 60 years, invasions into Lebanon, using white phosphorous bombs against civilians, using F22s against school children....but who tells these details? Why don't these get developed, as they should be, into charges of Israeli human rights violations?

Perhaps this narrow historical viewpoint that you have chosen for yourself has lead you to believe that all the focus should be on Iran and that will solve all the problems that the US is facing. How can you believe that a nation that established itself by attempting genocide on its native population and who encourages Israel to do the same thing will ever hold a fair and just attitude towards Iran? Iran was only useful as a puppet state, but even before the Iranians embraced their independence through the Islamic Revolution, when their legally elected prime minister was removed through  a coup, the US was showing its true nature. After less than half a century of independence from imperialism, while simultaneously facing war, attacks on civilian targets from MKO, international sanctions, and attempts at a soft revolution which were sponsored and coordinated through foreign intelligence, Iran is held to a standard of legal and legislative excellence that even the US and Britain have not achieved in their several hundred years history. Any overhauls and renovations that might be needed in the Iranian system need to be developed by the Iranians themselves, not dealt by America. Let American clean its own house first.

While I'd expect you to know the history of the CIA coup to remove Mossadegh in 1953, perhaps you don't remember or haven't ever read the story, documents recently released and declassified after 50 years and now found in the American Archives, of the hundreds of thousands of Iranians who perished through famine and disease after British and US forces confiscated the rice and wheat of Iran for the Allied soldiers from 1915-1918. It is some of these same nations that illegally took the resources of Iran and watched as Iranians died of starvation who today forget their own crimes and choose to sanction Iran.

Unfortunately, in spite of the vast network of information available on the internet, many people still depend upon the canned news with which the major media outlets flood the airwaves and cyberspace. These facts are there for the gathering. An educated person such as you should help to make all the facts known and then people can act upon that knowledge to work towards a just and equitable solution. Instead of making the whole story known, you are helping cover up critical parts, which conveniently allows the spread of imperialism.

 In your enthusiasm over playing democracy, your concern for your 'vote' is mislaid because it is the military-industrial complex and not the votes and opinions of John Q. Public which more often determines policy. More human rights violations are committed by these agencies than any other. Why then do they dare to attach claims of human rights violations against Iran? You should be aware that many average Americans are finally realizing this fact and are stepping forward and speaking out against it. Because of these past policies and their related crimes, you should not fall for the promise of bringing democracy to Iran.

Despite the recent opposition candidates being propped up with millions of dollars in financial support by the US, surely you must be aware that there are many think-tank advisors who warn that Green leaders are worse than Ahmadinejad's administration and both of them have to go. It's sort of like the old expression you'd hear in the old Wild West movies: "The only good Indian is a dead Indian."

If your organization works to support sanctions against Iran because you think that you are going to get a great democracy as an end result, you will see in the end that they have no use for either party, that they don't care if all Iranians get destroyed, just as their determination to bring democracy to Afghanistan and Iraq have brought the deaths of millions of Iraqis and Afghanis, so long as valuable natural resources fall into US control.

 
Today, our youth and intellectuals are disconnected from Iran's history and identity. Your efforts could help to shape a strong and independent Iran for the future. America is working in its own interests; any talk of benefits for the Iranian people are crumbs falling from the table, after the US has gained control of Iran's abundant natural resources. This pattern is well established all over the world and many nations are already waking up to the miserable plan that has befallen them. What a coincidence that these nations are always referred to as rogue states when they are mentioned in the news over here!
 
My advice to you is to embrace your homeland, to work for the improvement and stability of this young republic. These 'international powers' that you mention have long operated as colonial powers. Who are they to judge and sanction Iran, who has not attacked another nation in modern history, in at least the last three hundred years? Why did they show no concern for introducing democracy to Iran when the Shah's Savak was rounding up, imprisoning and torturing the innocents from the streets of Tehran? Why are they concerned only when Iran dares to break out of its puppet role?

The enlightened people of America are slowly waking up to realize the mess that this type of foreign policy, which doesn't blink at dictators but balks at true independence, has created for them, how much their national image has suffered and how fragile world peace has become as a result. Challenge yourself to work with the administration that gets elected (even if it's not your candidate) to strengthen and stabilize Iran.
 
Ask yourself honestly: Who would benefit from an impoverished and struggling Iran? Who would benefit from military struggle with Iran? Where have the efforts at establishing so-called democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan gotten those populations? How long would you be willing to see US troops in your homeland?
 
Reza Saiedi