Kerry and the ayatollahs
As Sen.
John Kerry expands his lead in the Democratic presidential primaries, he is
coming under fire for his conciliatory statements about the government of
Iran and his attacks on the Bush administration's policy toward the regime.
Ever since the Iranian Revolution occurred during Jimmy Carter's presidency
a quarter-century ago, Tehran has been hostile to the United States and one
of the world's leading supporters of terrorism — providing funding, weapons,
training and safe haven to groups like Hezbollah, Hamas,
Palestinian Islamic Jihad and even al Qaeda. But
Mr. Kerry seems to believe that the crux of the problem isn't Iran's
despotic, violent rulers, but President Bush's behavior
toward them.
In a Dec. 3 address to the Council on Foreign Relations, Mr. Kerry
suggested that the Bush administration's unwillingness to bargain with
Tehran is to blame for Iran's harboring of al
Qaeda operatives. "It is incomprehensible and
unacceptable that this administration refuses to broker an arrangement with
Iran," Mr. Kerry declared. "The Bush administration stubbornly refuses to
conduct a realistic, non-confrontational policy with Iran."
Mr. Kerry's national security issues coordinator, Rand Beers, said last
month that U.S.-Iranian talks have been blocked by the Bush administration,
which "is so tied in its own ideological views of Iran and waiting for the
Iranian regime to collapse."
On Feb. 8, the Tehran Times published a letter that Mr. Kerry's office
sent to an Iranian news agency explaining why he should be elected
president. The letter suggests that the Bush administration's objectionable
behavior toward other nations is to blame for
many of the world's problems. "Sadly, we are also painfully aware of how the
actions and attitudes demonstrated by the U.S. government over the past
three years have threatened the goodwill earned by presidents of both
parties over many decades and put many of our international relationships at
risk," the Kerry letter says.
Mr. Kerry's comments suggesting that the Bush administration is to blame
for Tehran's animosity have drawn a sharp rebuke from the Student Movement
Coordination Committee for Democracy in Iran. "Why, Senator? Why and how
could a man of your honor and
valor disregard the suffering people of a nation
and appease a brutal regime?" the group asked in a Feb. 19 open letter to
Mr. Kerry (the full text is
availableonthegroup'sWebsiteat
www.daneshjoo.org
). Mr. Kerry's campaign has thus far failed to respond to this newspaper's
queries about the letter or his position on Iran. But his statements thus
far indicate a profound misunderstanding of reality: It is not Mr. Bush, but
the Iranian regime's malevolent behavior for the
past 25 years, that has damaged relations between the two countries.
