G W & Hillary
The other side of the same coin

February 5, 2007
iranian.com

Speaking at the Democratic National Convention’s winter meeting, Presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton declared that once she becomes president, she would end the war in Iraq and restore the basic promise of America.  Mrs. Clinton, who voted for the illegal invasion of sovereign Iraq, knows she must end the Iraq war in order to launch another – a war on sovereign Iran.  

This clever and yet unimaginative woman has failed to come up with her own rhetoric.  Borrowing from W. she shamelessly echoes him:  "In dealing with this threat ... no option can be taken off the table."  And so she intends to restore the basic promise of America by engaging the country in a far more violent conflict.  The road to the White House is no longer through Iraq, but through the ruins of Iran.  What an irony that the self-acclaimed civilized Western world deems it necessary to destroy the cradle of civilization as if the reflections of the past are a threat to its bogus and fragile ‘civilization’. 

American policy makers distract world opinion by misrepresenting Ahmadinejad’s remarks, exaggerating the gravity of the “myth” remark so that by contrast and through distraction, they can exonerate themselves of the responsibility of the death toll in Iraq and the ruin of a nation which was brought about as a result of their ineptness.  Accusations of bigotry are all the more cynical because the very country that is pointing the finger recently witnessed a Moslem Congressman be shunned by a fellow Republican Congressman Virgil Goode with these words:

“Congressman Keith Ellison should not be allowed to do so - not because of any American hostility to the Koran, but because the act undermines American civilization,' Prager argued. “Insofar as a member of Congress taking an oath to serve America and uphold its values is concerned, America is interested in only one book, the Bible.”

It is worthwhile reminding ourselves that Iran’s parliament has enjoyed a diversity of minorities including the Jews whom Mrs. Clinton would have the Americans believe the Iranian government wants to annihilate. While it is contemptible of Ahmadinejad to question the Holocaust in spite of all the evidence, the realities and horrors of what is taking place in Iraq today as a result of US actions can hardly match up to the idiotic remarks of the Iranian president.  His words have only served to further isolate the Iranian nation and play into the hands of warmongers, not cost hundreds of thousands of lives - although some would like to misinterpret the words in to deeds as justification for their own barbaric behavior.

In the same vein as W. and other neo-cons, Hillary insists on repeating Ahmadinejad’s speech purposefully incorrectly translated by MEMRI and propagated to the general public by the mainstream media to arm the neo-cons.  The next war she is planning in order to return to the White House as its Commander-in-Chief would cost America dearly.   Who knows if there would be enough body bags to bring home our true defenders of the flag, much less mend the fabric of our morality and dignity. 

If Hillary wants to restore the basic promise of America as she claims she does, she would do well to recall George Washington’s farewell address as a guide to patriotism.

“So likewise, a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter without adequate inducement or justification. It leads also to concessions to the favorite nation of privileges denied to others which is apt doubly to injure the nation making the concessions; by unnecessarily parting with what ought to have been retained, and by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a disposition to retaliate, in the parties from whom equal privileges are withheld. And it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens (who devote themselves to the favorite nation), facility to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country, without odium, sometimes even with popularity; gilding, with the appearances of a virtuous sense of obligation, a commendable deference for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, the base or foolish compliances of ambition, corruption, or infatuation.

As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable ways, such attachments are particularly alarming to the truly enlightened and independent patriot. How many opportunities do they afford to tamper with domestic factions, to practice the arts of seduction, to mislead public opinion, to influence or awe the public councils 7 Such an attachment of a small or weak towards a great and powerful nation dooms the former to be the satellite of the latter.

Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government. But that jealousy to be useful must be impartial; else it becomes the instrument of the very influence to be avoided, instead of a defense against it. Excessive partiality for one foreign nation and excessive dislike of another cause those whom they actuate to see danger only on one side, and serve to veil and even second the arts of influence on the other. Real patriots who may resist the intrigues of the favorite are liable to become suspected and odious, while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people, to surrender their interests”. -- The Avalon Project at Yale Law School.
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Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich has lived and studied in Iran, the UK, France, and the US. She obtained her Bachelors Degree in International Relations from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. She is currently pursuing her education in Middle East studies and Public Diplomacy. Soraya has done extensive research on US foreign policy towards Iran and Iran’s nuclear program. She can be reached at sorayau@earthlink.net