Spring Break
Award-winning foreign correspondent speaks in Atlanta
By: Sarah Bailey
Issue date: 3/18/08 Section: News
On Feb. 22 at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Atlanta, best-selling author and former New York Times foreign correspondent Stephen Kinzer spoke about his 22 city tour promoting his book, Overthrow, and raising awareness about the Bush administration's new policy against Iran.
"The Bush Administration has adopted a confrontational policy against Iran, including the threat of military force," said Kinzer.
"Americans are being told that Iran is on the brink of developing nuclear weapons, supports terrorism, is helping to kill American soldiers in Iraq, and is determined to destroy Israel. Many of these claims echo the language used to justify the U.S. invasion against Iraq and the rest on similarly dubious evidence."
Kinzer believes that attacking Iran would prove dire to the United States and only cause extremists in the Middle East to grow stronger in violence towards America.
In "A New American Approach to Iran," Kilzner's new article, he said "Attacking Iran would turn that country's oppression, who are now highly unpopular at home, into heroes of Islamic resistance; give them a strong incentive to launch a violent counter-campaign against American interests around the world."
He also added that the war would "disrupt the flow of Middle East petroleum in ways that could wreak havoc on Western economies."
Kinzer went on to say that America has this notion that what is right for America is right for every other country, but the truth is that what is right for America is not always appropriate for other countries. "Somewhere along the way America decided to enforce their beliefs on other countries as the right way to run things."
Touring with Kinzer was Fatemeh Keshavarz, a Persian and Comparative Literature professor at Washington University in St. Louis. She believes that our government uses politics of fear to keep the people from being accurately informed about what is going on in Iran.
"Our perception of Iran has become an abnormality," Keshavarz said. "This makes it possible for our President to say that Iran is our biggest threat…we are not supposed to hear anything positive about Iran."
"The Bush Administration has adopted a confrontational policy against Iran, including the threat of military force," said Kinzer.
"Americans are being told that Iran is on the brink of developing nuclear weapons, supports terrorism, is helping to kill American soldiers in Iraq, and is determined to destroy Israel. Many of these claims echo the language used to justify the U.S. invasion against Iraq and the rest on similarly dubious evidence."
Kinzer believes that attacking Iran would prove dire to the United States and only cause extremists in the Middle East to grow stronger in violence towards America.
In "A New American Approach to Iran," Kilzner's new article, he said "Attacking Iran would turn that country's oppression, who are now highly unpopular at home, into heroes of Islamic resistance; give them a strong incentive to launch a violent counter-campaign against American interests around the world."
He also added that the war would "disrupt the flow of Middle East petroleum in ways that could wreak havoc on Western economies."
Kinzer went on to say that America has this notion that what is right for America is right for every other country, but the truth is that what is right for America is not always appropriate for other countries. "Somewhere along the way America decided to enforce their beliefs on other countries as the right way to run things."
Touring with Kinzer was Fatemeh Keshavarz, a Persian and Comparative Literature professor at Washington University in St. Louis. She believes that our government uses politics of fear to keep the people from being accurately informed about what is going on in Iran.
"Our perception of Iran has become an abnormality," Keshavarz said. "This makes it possible for our President to say that Iran is our biggest threat…we are not supposed to hear anything positive about Iran."
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