Actions Thursday Against War with Iran and for Real Diplomacy

MoveOn is sponsoring hundreds of events around the country Thursday against war with Iran -- folks will be delivering petitions to Members of Congress at their local offices. Find an event near you.

Meanwhile, Reps. DeFazio and Welch are sending a letter next week to President Bush asking for a "direct, unconditional, and comprehensive" dialogue with Iran in the wake of the Iran NIE. Current signers include: Woolsey, Ellison, Kucinich, Doggett, Farr, Olver, Baldwin, Hirono, McGovern, Lee, Blumenauer, McDermott, Moran, and Wu. Ask your Rep. to sign on by contacting DeFazio or Welch. Capitol switchboard is 202-224-3121. [The deadline for signing on to the letter is Wednesday, December 19 at noon.]

Here's the text of the DeFazio/Welch letter:

Dear Mr. President:

The release of the National Intelligence Estimate and the success of negotiations over arms shipments into Iraq clearly demonstrate that our nation's differences with Iran can and must be resolved diplomatically. We write to urge your Administration to engage in direct, unconditional, and comprehensive dialogue with the Government of Iran.

As you know, on December 3, 2007, the Director of National Intelligence released a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) declaring that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003. According to the NIE, "the program probably was halted primarily in response to international pressure." It further concludes that "Iran may be more vulnerable to influence on the [nuclear] issue than we judged previously."

Meanwhile, our Generals in Iraq report that discussions between Ambassador Ryan Crocker and his Iranian counterparts were successful in demonstrably reducing the flow of arms across the Iran-Iraq border. On November 15, 2007, Major General James Simmons stated, "We have not seen any recent evidence that weapons continue to come across the border into Iraq... We believe that the initiatives and the commitments that the Iranians have made appear to be holding up."

These developments indicate that diplomacy has produced concrete changes in the Iranian government's behavior.

Furthermore, the progress made with Libya and North Korea under your Administration proves that "rogue" states can be convinced to abandon nuclear weapons programs as a result of sustained, direct diplomacy with the United States. This model can and must be applied toward Iran.

We urge you to build upon the progress made by Ambassador Crocker and upon our own intelligence agencies' positive assessment of Iran's responsiveness to diplomacy. It is time to begin direct, unconditional, and comprehensive negotiations with Iran.

Sincerely,

Peter Welch Peter DeFazio

Member of Congress Member of Congress

Comments

[Vanna]

09:52 AM on 12/18/2007

Don't publish the TOLL number--pu­blish the FREE numbers.

Jeez, like I want to be put on hold and pay for the privilege.

800-828-04­98
800-614-28­03
866-340-92­81
866-338-10­15
877-851-64­37

Not everyone has free long distance all day and all night, y'know.

"Hello, may I please have the office of my crawling shiver-liv­ered coward of a Congressma­n, Russ Carnahan?"

[RibEye]

04:25 PM on 12/15/2007

Diplomacy has huge potetials, more than military at times. First off, the Iranian people are the biggest threat to the regime. The regime's No one goal is to remain in power, not to destroy Israel. Why would it commit self destructio­n? It has all the resources it is robbing from the nation and the people. Take the guns off the table and the regime now has to answer to the demands of the people. It is shocking that other than Iranians none else sees the angle of how the regime is bent of destroying Iran's pre-islami­c history and cutlture. The labor union leaders, journalist­s and students behind bars. Iran will ultimatly become the cradle of infidels against islam, if they are not threatened by an outside force. Many Persian heros in the past have died fighting for freedom. Let us remember from as far back as Babak Khorramdin to ar rescent as Dariush Foruhar.

[DrVeruju]

01:57 AM on 12/13/2007

Vote for Kucinich

[hu.man]

08:50 PM on 12/12/2007

This is a nice letter. Making peace with Iran to enhance the overall stability in the region is a great idea.

But and this is a big but, doing so without getting the Iranian regime to acquiesce to specific concession­s is tantamount to giving the radical elements who are now in power there a great victory. This is not in the best interests of anyone in that neighborho­od or beyond for that matter.

We had our chance to do good with Iran when moderates were in power there. But we passed because we thought we could throw these rascals out just like what we had intended to do with Saddam.

Now that our influence has greatly diminished in the region by poor execution of the regime change in Baghdad, we have no choice but to make good with the Iranian radicals.

We have been outsmarted in this situation because we simply became too arrogant about American military prowess and its capability to produce our desired outcome. Now sanctions are being used to bring Iranians to their knees.

Can anyone tell me of an instance that sanctions produced the desired foreign policy outcome? Sanctions are so cowardly because they give the impression that something is being done but in reality we are only hurting the common folks there.