Friday, February 10, 2006
Iran, Islam, Imperialism, and Mehdi: What are Bush’s Responsibilities?
I received an excellent response to one of my posts, “Should Bush Bomb Iran? To Late” from a woman in Iran named Mehdi. This is the response:
I’m mehdi, a 21 year old from Iran (sari city).Bachelor of Science (civil engineering)
sorry . I can not speeking english very good because my language is persian...
tanyour belog is useful for me...
Ahmadinejad is not my president ..........
we need people of world help for reach democracy and freedom in iran ...and salvation from molas regime.....
freedom is not free (Ganji Akbar )
" Iran is Prison with 70 million Prisoner "
It raises some interesting questions, doesn’t it? I mean, on one hand, we have just come out publicly (State of the Union) and said that we are going to promote freedom and democracy everywhere, and as such, shouldn’t Mehdi expect to receive the support of the US in her struggle for freedom?
On the flip side, if we go rushing into countries like Iran to help the Mehdis of the world, and to help the oppressed majorities find their voice in fundamentalist societies, aren’t we becoming the very imperialists that the Muslim world accuses the United States of being?
And just because the philosophy the United States is purporting is one of peace and equality, does that make the United State’s cause better than that of the Iranians? Aren’t we guilty of the same crimes, pushing our policies on governments around the world who don’t necessarily want to make a change?
I know that I believe that America’s imperialism is not correct, and that the more we force other nations to utilize our system of government the more resentment we will build around the world. Eventually, the United States will pay for their imperialism. But I also believe in helping the Mehdis of the world, and that we have an obligation to support people who can’t help themselves, as individuals and as a nation.
What’s more, I think that the United States, like Israel, has the right to defend itself, and that defending the US against certain regimes mean preventing those regimes from acquiring too much power, even if that means being imperialist. In a world that has become smaller very quickly through advancements in transportation and communication, such action sometimes becomes necessary. Unfortunately, those actions breed more nations that we will have to defend ourselves against.
I readily admit that I don’t have the answers to these tremendously difficult issues. I think you have to examine each situation, in a case by case manner, and hope that our leaders make good choices, only using force where absolutely necessary and remembering that dialogue helps peoples understand each other better, and helps prevent these situations in the long run. And along the way, I guess you hope that Mehdi and others like her are taken care of.
Posted by Scottage at 2:24 PM /
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