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Freedom, freedom and freedom
Let's hope domestic American values will be projected in the Middle East

September 21, 2001
The Iranian

As the world is biting its nail awaiting the military action in the Middle East, the target(s) has been left to the imagination. Is it the Chairman of the Board Osama, and his host, the Taliban regime, which controls most of Afghanistan? Or, is the aim much wider, as some U.S. officials have intimated?

Whichever it is, one thing is certain, the sons and daughters of America are being put in grave jeopardy along with the inhabitants of the targeted locations. It is only prudent to spend such irreplaceable assets for the achievement of the most desirable, and yet elusive wish of all mankind, peace on earth.

If contemporary history has any clues to offer, it is that short-term a few powerful corporations will be the ultimate beneficiaries of the bloods that are about to be shed.

I know this is not the time to look at the enabling factors of the barbarity that was most recently put on gory display in New York and DC -- American's military reaction is taking precedent over all other discussions. But, I also know, sooner or later, policy makers of the past will have to explain their disastrous decisions, which have contributed in a major way, in bringing us to where we are.

There will come a time when America will demand to know why Osama was not kept on a shorter leash after his useful days of recruiting Afghan Arabs to fight the Soviets came to an end.

The unanswered question of how many times do Americans have to pay with blood and treasure for "our SOBs" who have gone on their own, is not going to go away. So is the need to know, how many Saddams, Noriegas, Somozas, Mobutos, and.... does it take to learn a simple lesson: It is impossible to bottle up or rehabilitate monsters after they have been trained to be monsters.

Americans are the most generous souls; they lead the world in humanitarian, charitable donations. Their acceptance of huddled masses on their shores is surpassed by none. In over three decades of living amongst them, the overwhelming majority of the ones I have got to know, have taken Lady Liberty to heart, and consider it their duty to guard her cherished ideals. Why is it that elected governments don't carry out their deep-rooted wishes abroad?

Decades past, it was United Fruit and its Banana Republics. Of course the continuing saga of the oil conglomerates and their insatiable appetite for the quickest buck is still dictating most that is happening. The genealogy of the big and small despotic regimes of the Middle East, the latest being the Taliban, can all, in one way or another, be traced back to oil, and as of late, the desire for the shortest pipeline route.

The business of America is business. Businesses are fueled by cheap oil, so goes the justification of distinctly un-American policies that have been implemented in the name of Americans. In a nation where brothers, sons and fathers fought one another and a great, great many died, mostly because the majority abhorred enslavement of human beings -- subjugation of others has been and is being done in their name via proxy rulers.

Last night's address by President Bush to the the joint session of Congress, left the door open to a revision of the U.S. foreign policy. If so, let's hope a thorough spring-cleaning is in the offing. Let's hope, once and for all, an inoculation against fanaticism and a host of other deadly maladies is administered by the sons and daughters of a nation built upon the desire for freedom.

Let's hope it has finally dawned on the decision makers that democracies in the Middle East will be the best guarantors of a steady supply of market-priced oil, on top of a hefty appetite for all sorts of American products by the multitude of freedom-starved souls. Let's hope domestic American values will be projected in the region for a change.

Finally, let's hope sham republics, hereditary presidencies and absolute monarchies are marginalized and people are empowered and given a chance to experience what it is that makes America such a great nation: Freedom, freedom and freedom .

Comment for The Iranian letters section Comment to the writer Shahriar Zangeneh