Letter to the People of Iran

[Doc Martin]

To my brothers and sisters in Iran,

I would like to tell you something before we are unable to hear one another.

Mr. George Bush does not represent the people of the United States.

About 70% of us disapprove of his job performance. You can trust this claim since the same report keeps coming from various polling bodies. We took away his party’s control of the US legislature in 2006. Even those in his own party dread the next election in 2008. They are expected to lose large numbers of seats in what will be a referendum on George Bush. Many say this will be the end of an era of conservative dominance and that it will take generations for his party to regain power. Younger people and the rapidly growing Latino population are rejecting his leadership in dramatically large numbers. But 16 months remain before he must give up power.

Mr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appears to be just as unpopular among the people of Iran.

One recent survey says that 62% of the Iranian people who voted for him in 2005 would not vote for him again. I don’t fully trust the numbers; remember the Americans were told we would be greeted as liberators in Iraq. But I do suspect that he is indeed unpopular since this message keeps coming from diverse sources. Young people in particular are said to reject Ahmadinejad.

When Mr. Bush strikes out against Iran, primitive loyalties will take over.

The American people will likely rally behind a commander-in-chief during war time. Those of us who do object will be said to be giving comfort to the enemy. I suppose the Iranian people will rally behind Mr. Ahmadinejad, I can’t imagine you siding with anyone who bombs your country. Our countries will be at war with one another, we will be at war with one another not because we want or need to fight one another but because we each have a head of state that, rejected as leader, still has authority that we cannot seem to check.

Given the humiliating, public failure in Iraq, Mr. Bush needs a victory to pre-empt his being labeled as the worst president in US history. His popularity peaked due to circumstances; people would have rallied around any leader when our mainland was attacked for the first time in history. Fear was the mother that birthed him as a leader. His popularity bumped up again when he bombed Baghdad and thus demonstrated the power and might to crush anyone who would attack the US. That the Iraqi people were not the attackers was a minor detail.

I don’t think he is an evil person but saving face is important to most of us. He might not even be conscious of this ego need when he gives the green light to bomb Tehran. And, after all, he is doing what he sees as God’s work.

I wish we could confine Bush and Ahmadinejad in a cage, lock them up for an extreme fighting match. That would be better than their having us as stand-ins for them in their fight. Since each says God is on his side, of what or whom should he be afraid?

I feel powerless to stop the bloodshed and destruction. Is there anything that we can do together?