Akbar Ganji, an investigative journalist, offers an intriguing piece on Iranian democracy. American attempts to influence the course of Iranian politics, he writes, are futile because they do not understand Iran, its regime or the obsession it has with the United States.
we have also learned that we have to gain our freedom ourselves, and that only we can nourish that freedom and create a political system that can sustain it. Ours is a difficult struggle; it could even be a long one. Anyone who claims to possess a golden formula for bringing freedom to Iran, and claims that all he needs is foreign cash and foreign help to put his plan into effect, is a swindler.
One of the keys to encouraging democracy is understanding, he writes. Understanding will go a long way toward creating the kind of climate in which democracy can thrive. But instead of understanding, the United States under both parties has looked for immediate results.
And it is important for the United States to play fair with Iran by not only pushing for its disarmament, but for a nuclear-free Middle East.
The American policy of confronting the Iranian regime’s nuclear adventurism is correct. But the rationale for opposing this adventurism should not be that the mullahs oppose the West and the United States. The West’s double standard on nonproliferation is not defensible. The entire Middle East must be declared a nuclear-free zone. Opposition to the dangerous process that has begun in the region — a process that the Islamic Republic has helped turn into a crisis — must be based on a more general call first for regional, then for global, nuclear disarmament.
Iranians want freedom and a secular society.
South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
Hank Kalet 