Letters

Write for The Iranian Editorial policy

Wednesday
September 19, 2001

* Terrorism not Nazi Germany

Mr. Parsi,

In response to your letter "Nazi threat ring a bell?", I feel that in your rush to discredit the letter "Fucking for virginity" (and making several personal attacks that I choose to ignore) you have missed the point of the letter. I apologise for the unfortunate title of the letter, I had absolutely no control over it (someone in Iranian.com obviously chose "eye-catching" over "informative" when titling my letter). I don't want a slanging match, Mr. Parsi, but your response was extremely misleading and I feel I should highlight this.

You have chosen several minor points to take issue with, points that seem to border on the irrelevant with respect to the general gist of the letter. I understand that in order to draw attention from the other arguments (which you cannot answer) you are forced to look to the periphery and beyond (i.e. childish personal attacks) in order to undermine the entire letter. For example, you take issue with the comparison to the USS Vincennes incident, you write:

"It was not, however, a much celebrated massive, bloody, and deliberate attack against humanity and modern civilization."

I do seem to remember the navy officers in charge of the USS Vincennes coming home to a hero,s welcome, I recall much flag waving at their return ceremony. But that's not the point, you're trying too hard to discredit the comparison - do you feel the WTC disaster has been "much celebrated"?

We all know that it hasn't been - quite the opposite. I should also raise the point that the much coined phrase "attack against humanity and modern civilisation" can easily be applied to many recent world events, let's not think that "humanity" or "civilisation" exist only in the US. Israeli state assassinations are, as much attacks on "humanity and civilisation" as the terrorist attack on the WTC -- THAT'S the point you missed.

The next point you raise is even more extraordinary, as it doesn't address anything I said or even hinted at;

"And as for the Arab/Israeli conflict, you should remember that the Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad and Hamas are NOT fighting for a Palestinian state. They are fighting for their dream caricature world where they can eliminate all the 'infidels' and rule the entire world as the Taliban do to Afghanistan."

I'm not aware of saying any words of support in favour of the Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad or Hamas. In fact I think I made clear what I thought of any act of terrorism, perhaps you should reread the bit where I expressed sympathy for young Israeli soldiers.

Again, you're trying to reply to things I haven't said in order to undermine the letter as a whole. I was simply raising the point that there's a whole load of suffering out there which we don't acknowledge and used the example of Palestinian suffering to illustrate. Perhaps my letter wasn't obvious enough.

You asked, "Does Nazi threat ring a bell?"

The Nazi threat was a completely different issue, we're talking about a clear enemy who has already invaded several countries and seems to have expansion on the mind. Are you seriously comparing international terrorism with Nazi Germany?!

My friend, you're mistaken if you think unrestrained action by the US will solve the problems we're facing. This is not an enemy that can surrender like Nazi Germany when it's capital is invaded.

Unrestrained military action with loss of civilian life, and lowering of living standards further (i.e. bombing the Middle-East into the stone age) will only increase the problem by breeding more terrorists. Hence "fighting for peace is like fucking for virginity" which was not intended as an axiom, as you seem to have treated it, in order to find something to direct your anger against.

If military force is the way forward, then I re-iterate my point that we must also bomb a dozen other places in order to defeat international terrorism, unless our war is against a certain group of terrorists, a point which you have failed to address.

You wrote:

"How about the Cold War? Does the word communism sound familiar. And who saved you and your ancestors booties from that? You should be as modest as you are ignorant."

Oh? Saved is it? I see that anything that isn't "The American Way" is a threat. Give them (non-Americans) a cross, a Star Spangled Banner and a verse of "God Bless America" and they can be considered civilised. The actions of the US in Vietnam were simply despicable, I think the view that anywhere was "saved" from Communism by the Marshall Plan or direct US intervention is very arrogant and extremely narrow minded.

You wrote:

"If you think the USA did something to deserve this attack why don't you just say so? This is still officially an open society and you don't have to be morally or politically correct expressing condolences about lives lost."

That's an extremely low shot and I think neatly summarises your entire letter and general attitude. Frankly, I'm very disappointed that your arguments don't address any of the fundamental points of the letter they're in response to and are generally very provocative and irrelevant, the penultimate paragraph is a testament to this.

If you cannot address the point of a letter in future, please don't resort to such cheap tricks in order to pretend you're doing so. I don't claim that my points are unarguable, simply that you haven't addressed any of them.

I hope that the majority of readers found more in the letter than the minor details you have chosen to respond to. I hope the trees didn't obscure the forest.

Ehsan Ghorani

Comment for The Iranian letters section