Dear Mahmoud,

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sent a letter to the American people. Here is your chance to respond.






MRB:

Dear President Ahmadinejad and Noble Iranians,

Thank you for your letter. I was truly struck by its sincerity and logic and controlled passion which, in these troubled times, is very welcome. There is, today, far too much loud, screaming rhetoric of hatred and wishing total death and destruction on one another. You seem to understand there is no purpose served by doing that.

I was even moved by your analysis of our failed policies in Iraq. Nothing new there really since all the information you use is readily available through our free press, and internet and electronic media and people talking and arguing freely on street corners and churches and schools. It's all out there. It's they way we do it here in America. Many of your points I have made myself right here in preceding entries to the 3HM. You have a good take on the high cost of this war and how it has affected us economically, militarily, reputationally around the world and spiritually here in the United States.

But my problem with your letter is this. No where did you offer any suggestions of what you and your country could do to help this situation. Your rhetoric, and forgive me for saying this, has been downright hostile, threatening, belligerent and war mongering; precisely the same things you criticize the United States for in your masterful letter. Though you didn't say so directly in this letter, your prior outrageous statements about wiping the nation of Israel off the face of the earth is no way for you to suggest that we sit around a table and discuss joint solutions to complex issues. Especially since everyone is expected to take your word that you want uranium for power plants, not bombs. How you expect to annihilate Israel without nuclear weapons is a disconnect for me, but it would make all of us a little easier if you'd let neutral parties in to inspect those places you claim are not being used to make weapons. As you point out this administration made one serious blunder when we thought Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. If you want to help us and yourself, let inspectors in. And most troubling is that you have said nothing about what your country is doing to prevent terrorists from training there with money and weapons you are supplying to them. Don't deny it, you know you are.

Please don't get me wrong. My Republican friends all think I am crazy for wanting you and Syria and the other sovereign nations of the mid-east and the United States to sit down and talk about peace and what is best for the future of Iraq. But what will you bring to the table? I'll argue on your behalf but you have to work with me.

Until then, I very much appreciate your heart-felt letter. I'm doing my small part here in the United States to achieve peace so everyone wins a little. All I ask is for you to hold your letter to a mirror and do the same.

Thanks for taking the time to write.

KJW:

Dear Mahmoud:

In 1953, United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower gave a speech entitled A Chance for Peace concerning our relationship with the Soviet Union. In that speech he said in part:

"No people on earth can be held, as a people, to be enemy, for all humanity shares the common hunger for peace and fellowship and justice. No nation's security and well-being can be lastingly achieved in isolation but only in effective cooperation with fellow-nations. Any nation's right to its own form of government and an economic system of its own choosing is inalienable. Any nation's attempt to dictate to other nations their form of government is indefensible. A nation's hope of lasting peace cannot be firmly based upon any race in armaments but rather upon just relations and honest understanding with all other nations."

If you and your country would live by these words, Iran and the United States, along with the rest of the world, could live with each other in peace.


EJS:

Dear Mahmoud,

Thanks for your thoughtful letter. I was noticing though, your language is quite different from speeches you have given at home. You have been quoted as saying that you want to, "wipe Israel off the map," and you can picture, "a world without America and Israel." These are not the words of someone who is seeking peace. Your actions have been suspect as well. First, there is the ongoing problem of your nuclear program. You have said that you seek only civilian nuclear technology, however the weapons-grade uranium and enrichment system you have set up says otherwise. Also, you have continued to fight a proxy war against Israel by using your forces in Lebanon (Hezbollah) and the Lebanese population as human shields. These actions are abhorrent and not the way in which civilized countries operate. Until you are ready to change your rhetoric and your actions, Iran will become increasingly isolated and at odds with the international community. Diplomacy will eventually break down, and the people of Iran will be the ones to face the wrath brought on by your decisions. We respect the Iranian people and their sovereignty, and welcome you with open arms into the family of nations, but only after you abide by the same laws as all countries abide by.