[Peace-discuss] [Peace] impt: urge Rep. Davis sign Price/Dent letter, Iran diplomacy opening on Iranian election

[Robert Naiman]

Most Members of Congress are worse than the Obama Administration on this
issue, thanks to AIPAC and friends. A Congressional letter that said, "I
urge you to stop yammering on about Iran's nuclear program because it
doesn't threaten the United States" would get zero signers, not even
Barbara Lee would sign that.







On Wed, Jul 10, 2013 at 3:50 PM, Carl G. Estabrook <galliher at illinois.edu>wrote:

> Maybe this would be worthwhile, Bob, but the problem is that it accepts
> the Obama administration's consciously false description of the issue.
>
> Wouldn't it be something like urging the German government in the summer
> of 1939 "to pursue the potential opportunity presented by Poland's recent
> presidential election by reinvigorating German efforts to secure a
> negotiated agreement to end the Polish threat"?
>
> --CGE
>
>
> On Jul 10, 2013, at 3:01 PM, Robert Naiman <naiman at justforeignpolicy.org>
> wrote:
>
>
> Dear fellow Champaign-Urbana area lovers of peace,
>
> Once in a blue moon, there's a good opportunity to push Congress in a good
> direction on diplomacy with Iran. Most of the time, it's like that scene
> from the Matrix where Morpheus shows Neo what the world really looks like.
> But every once in a while, there's an opening.
>
> Right now, there's an opening, because of three things.
>
> One, Iran just had a presidential election. To the surprise of many, the
> candidate who won, Rouhani, was the candidate saying, hey, let's try to get
> along better with the West.
>
> Two: there's a bipartisan letter in Congress to President Obama saying,
> hey! We noticed that Iran just had a presidential election. We noticed that
> the guy who was saying, hey, let's try to get along better with the West,
> was the guy who won. So, like, why don't we try to test things with the new
> guy with diplomacy before jacking up the confrontation again?
>
> Three: this letter is being supported by groups in DC that have been
> pushing for diplomacy with Iran, including the Friends Committee on
> National Legislation, the National Iranian American Council, and J Street.
> And also CREDO.
>
> Finally, as is often the case with these things, there is a special effort
> to try to get Republicans to sign the letter, because only 15% of the
> current signers are Republicans. And that means that Rep. Davis is special,
> because in the set of Republicans, he's a plausible target. Voted for
> McGovern's recent amendment on Afghanistan withdrawal, for example.
>
> So here's my request:
>
> 1. Please call Rep. Davis' office in DC at (202) 225-2371, ask to talk
> to Kaitlyn Hastings, who's the Foreign Policy LA. Probably you will get
> transferred to voicemail. Fine. Leave a message with your name and address,
> asking that Rep. Davis sign the Price/Dent letter calling for President
> Obama "to pursue the potential opportunity presented by Iran's recent
> presidential election by reinvigorating U.S. efforts to secure a negotiated
> nuclear agreement."
>
> 2. Please send me a note letting me know that you've called. I'm trying to
> get folks in DC to push on Davis, and I want to be able to say, X people in
> the district have called.
>
> 3. Please forward this note to other folks you know who might call. If you
> know folks in the district outside of Champaign-Urbana who might call,
> (e.g. Decatur, Bloomington, Springfield) forwarding this note to them would
> be especially helpful.
>
> Thanks!
>
> P.S. The text of the letter is here:
> http://fcnl.org/issues/iran/diplomacy_with_iran_letter/
>
> --
> Robert Naiman
> Policy Director
> Just Foreign Policy
> www.justforeignpolicy.org
> naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
>
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>
>
>


-- 
Robert Naiman
Policy Director
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
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