Sign this petition then read my vague reflections on Iran
Just read a big piece of bad news here http://lifeuncensoredamerica.blogspot.com. Go read it and sign the petition.
Iran is taking a lot of international flak but none of it seems focused on its abysmal human rights record, which should be the real reason for advocating regime change in that country. By regime change I don't mean J-DAMs and cruise missiles and white phosphorous, I mean changing the government - something the people of Iran could easily do with the right kind of help from the international community.
A war will not solve these problems. For a start it will kill thousands of innocents like Nazanin and secondly America does not tend to put human rights at the top of its agenda these days. Witness Iraq where hardline religious factions have been allowed to gain control and to perpetrate the same kind of abuses we see in Iran, and Saudi Arabia, a horrifically repressive society which has prospered and flourished under American assistance over the years. Abu Graib, Guantanamo, extrodinary rendition; if Iran is invaded there is no reason to believe that human rights will improve.
I don't want Iran to have nuclear weapons. Unlike Iraq, it is known that Iran has sponsored terrorism in the past and probably still does, it's not inconceivable that an Iranian warhead could fall into terrorist hands. But they are still at least a decade away from producing a weapon and there is plenty of time for the UN to investigate ways to ensure that they do not and ways to improve their medieval justice system. But I doubt America will give the Iranian people the opportunity.
Iran is taking a lot of international flak but none of it seems focused on its abysmal human rights record, which should be the real reason for advocating regime change in that country. By regime change I don't mean J-DAMs and cruise missiles and white phosphorous, I mean changing the government - something the people of Iran could easily do with the right kind of help from the international community.
A war will not solve these problems. For a start it will kill thousands of innocents like Nazanin and secondly America does not tend to put human rights at the top of its agenda these days. Witness Iraq where hardline religious factions have been allowed to gain control and to perpetrate the same kind of abuses we see in Iran, and Saudi Arabia, a horrifically repressive society which has prospered and flourished under American assistance over the years. Abu Graib, Guantanamo, extrodinary rendition; if Iran is invaded there is no reason to believe that human rights will improve.
I don't want Iran to have nuclear weapons. Unlike Iraq, it is known that Iran has sponsored terrorism in the past and probably still does, it's not inconceivable that an Iranian warhead could fall into terrorist hands. But they are still at least a decade away from producing a weapon and there is plenty of time for the UN to investigate ways to ensure that they do not and ways to improve their medieval justice system. But I doubt America will give the Iranian people the opportunity.
posted by Ben at 12:18 pm
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