Abayomi Azikiwe, Editor of the Pan-African News Wire, covering the No War on Iran demonstration on Aug. 1, 2008 in downtown Detroit. The action coincided with protests in over 100 other cities. (Photo: Alan Pollock)., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.
President Obama, Vice President Biden, Secretary of State Clinton, Secretary of Defense Gates, U.N. Secretary-General Ban, Congressional Leaders and media representatives:
It is with grave concern that I observe the growing threat of a new U.S. war--this time against the people of Iran.
I demand an immediate end to the U.S. false fabrication campaign alleging Iranian government involvement in a plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington. It is nothing but an attempt to whip up a war frenzy against Iran, at a time when masses of people around the globe and right here at home are taking to the streets to demand an end to war and austerity and that the trillions spent on wars of destruction be brought back home and used for human needs.
For years, the media has been filled with reports of an alleged nuclear threat posed by Iran and the assumed need for the U.S. to take military action. These reports recall the "Weapons of Mass Destruction" stories issued during the Bush Administration in the months leading up to the war on Iraq.
In the lead up to the illegal invasion of Iraq, the Bush Administration asserted that Iraq possessed massive stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction and that it was capable of launching an attack - nuclear, chemical and biological - on the U.S. within 45 minutes.
President Bush said that the U.S. had to attack immediately, and could not "wait for the final proof -- the smoking gun -- that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud." We all know now that this propaganda campaign was a complete fabrication created to justify a war of aggression.
Now in the Obama Administration, we see reports that are all too similar being made to justify military action against the people of Iran. Taking Iran to the UN Security Council is a prelude for unilateral action. Just as in the case of Iraq, none of the claims made by the U.S. government stand up to unbiased scrutiny. Iran has submitted to the most intrusive and humiliating inspections, above and beyond what is required by Nuclear Weapons Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). None of the inspections have found any evidence that Iran is developing a nuclear weapons program.
There is only one government that has used nuclear weapons against civilian populations, and that same nation has the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction on the planet. Most dangerous and incredible it is at this very moment developing a new generation of tactical nuclear weapons that it intends to use, not merely to threaten. That country is, of course, the United States. Shouldn't any real discussion of the dangers of nuclear weapons include the weapons stockpiled by the Pentagon and the history of U.S. aggression and interventions?
Iran has suffered greatly at the hands of the U.S. We recall the U.S. overthrew the democratically elected government of Dr. M. Mossadegh and returned the Shah to the Peacock Throne - 'the proudest achievement of the CIA'. For 25 years the Shah ruled Iran with an iron fist for the benefit of U.S. oil corporations before the people of Iran, in the millions, overthrew his tyranny at a terrible cost in lives. For the past 27 years U.S. sanctions have impeded Iran's right to development and brought great suffering to the people.
It is essential that all voices opposed to the devastation of a new war in the Middle East speak out now. I urge an immediate end to Washington's campaign of sanctions, hostility, and falsehood against the people of Iran. I oppose any new U.S. aggression against Iran. We need funds for human needs, not endless war for empire.
Sincerely,
Abayomi Azikiwe
Editor, Pan-African News Wire
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