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

[Robert Naiman]

I don't want you to stay quiet about U.S. imperialism. I want you to stop
interfering in my efforts to get people to take action.




On Wed, Jul 10, 2013 at 8:54 PM, Carl G. Estabrook <galliher at illinois.edu>wrote:

> As I said, such a call to Rep. Davis' office might be worthwhile. (You
> might remind him that he replaced a representative who regularly voted
> against any more money for war in the Greater Middle East, and suggest that
> he do the same.)
>
> But it is surely at least inaccurate to speak of "U.S. efforts to secure a
> negotiated nuclear agreement." As you well know, there is already such an
> agreement - the Non-Proliferation Treaty - which Iran observes, while US
> clients are not signatories. US efforts are directed to destroying the
> Iranian economy because the oil flow from Iran is not under US control. And
> the US for years has successfully blocked "a negotiated nuclear agreement"
> that would establish a nuclear-free zone in the Mideast.
>
> Obama's own position on the matter was set out when he ran for the Senate
> from Illinois, and he's never changed it: "…the United States should not
> rule out military strikes to destroy nuclear production sites in Iran,
> Obama said … ‘having a radical Muslim theocracy in possession of nuclear
> weapons is worse [than] us launching some missile strikes into Iran…’ he
> said."
>
> In these circumstances, accepting the administration's propaganda about
> what it's doing vis-a-vis Iran would seem to me inappropriate at best.
>
> Regards, Carl
>
> PS - I don't quite understand your comment about a "personal FBI agent" -
> you can't mean what it seems to mean - but I do know that there are a
> number of people (including some comrades in the local antiwar movement)
> who don't think I've managed to stay quiet, and wish I would...
>
>
> On Jul 10, 2013, at 7:57 PM, Robert Naiman <naiman at justforeignpolicy.org>
> wrote:
>
> Is it a choice? Am I stopping anyone from standing anyone from standing on
> their soapbox and denouncing the Empire?
>
> Would it be so horrible if a few people took 15 seconds to call Rep. Davis
> to ask him to sign a letter for diplomacy with Iran?
>
> How is it that you manage to stay quiet for weeks, until I try to speak?
>
> It's like I have my own personal FBI agent.
>
>
> On Wed, Jul 10, 2013 at 7:23 PM, Carl G. Estabrook <galliher at illinois.edu>wrote:
>
>> But even if most members of Congress are "worse that the Obama
>> administration on this issue," that's hardly a reason to accept Obama's
>> lies. "You don't stick a knife in a man's back nine inches and then pull it
>> out six inches and say you're making progress."
>>
>> Or to carry out the 1939 analogy, a letter then to the members of the
>> Reichstag that said, "I urge you to stop yammering on about the Polish
>> threat to Germany" would not have got many signatures - but to say anything
>> else would have been at best inaccurate.
>>
>> It would seem better to tell Americans about the administration's
>> propaganda about Iran than to accept it and suggest moderation.
>>
>> --CGE
>>
>> On Jul 10, 2013, at 4:24 PM, Robert Naiman <naiman at justforeignpolicy.org>
>> wrote:
>>
>> 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 threat from Poland"?
>>>
>>>
>>> --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
>>>
>>> _
>>>
>>>


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