In an Op-Ed in the October 5, 2007 edition of the Mast, Ethan Jennings made several assertions regarding Iran that we feel we must respectfully but wholeheartedly respond to and correct.
The picture that Mr. Jennings paints of Iran does not resemble reality. He writes that "Iran is not stupendous" in the category of human rights, which suffice to say is a deep and frankly startling understatement. There is no democracy in Iran whatsoever, only tainted and fixed elections and a despotic class of mullahs which have ruled the country for over two-decades now.
Iranian President Ahmadinejad’s anti-semitism runs beyond simple holocaust denial as well, extending into repeated calls for the nation of Israel to be destroyed and wiped off the map entirely. He has also declared that there are no homosexuals within Iran, which would be true if the Iranian policy of persecution and execution were carried out in full.
Mr. Jennings also grossly distorts fact in asserting a similarity between Iran’s persistent support for terror and previous actions by the United States. Iran actively supplies and supports terror within Iraq, and in many cases it is Iranian weapons which are responsible for the deaths of American soldiers and Iraqi civilians in that country. Iran is also the patron of Hezbollah, a large and destabilizing terrorist organization within the Middle East.
Iranian support for terror is an institutionalized state policy, and to compare that to American support of anti-communist and anti-Soviet elements in the Cold War—as Mr. Jennings does—is completely misguided.
Finally, the reason that the United States does not object to countries such as France, Britain, and India possessing nuclear weapons is because those countries and ourselves are legitimate democracies accountable to their people. Iran clearly does not meet that criterion. It is and ought to be the United States’ and the civilized world’s policy to prevent a terror-sponsoring nation with hegemonic designs within the Middle East from having nuclear weapons. Does anyone really think it is acceptable to allow a country who has professed a desire to destroy Israel the means to do exactly that?
Iran is no ally of the United States or of free and peaceful peoples, and any truly "holistic picture of the situation" will demonstrate as much.
Geoff Smock
President, PLU GOP
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