What Should President Obama do? Letter Responses From Iran

Many people in the United States are debating whether President Obama needs to take a more active role and speak up more strongly on the humanitarian crisis in Iran or stay out of it. Although members of Congress from both parties appear to be more united in taking a strong stance in support of the people of Iran, the debates among commentators, writers and bloggers have fallen into the same old and tired trap of partisanship.

But the best way for us to know what kind of stance Iranians want President Obama to take is not to listen to those on either side who neither speak Farsi nor have they ever been to Iran, but to ask the Iranians directly. So during my latest appearance on Voice of America--the illegal but most popular TV channel in Iran--on Monday, I asked the Iranians to send me their opinions in response to the question, "what do you want President Obama to do on Iran?"

My mailbox is being flooded with e-mails in Farsi from throughout Iran. I am going to try to post translated excerpts from as many of these letters as possible throughout the next week. When the numbers make inclusion of every letter possible, I will select in a way that would represent the accurate diversity of opinions in terms of distribution, content and demographics.

If you are an Iranian, send me your response to Iran2009[at]SamSedaei.com or tweet your message to [at]samsedaei.

Letters from Iran: Excerpts

"... to answer your question, when we are confronted with the most repressive response on the streets, President Obama only said: 'we are watching Iran!' Well, please tell him this sentence is not going to have any impacts on these close-minded religious fanatics... In my opinion, the President of the United States needs to speak with more force about the situation, or at least behind the scenes, push for the most intense sanctions against these savages... I think that Mr. Obama is thoughtful and very likeable, and ever since his speech in Cairo, my liking him has been strengthened."
-Soheil

"Greetings to the people of United States, a nation that is the symbol of freedom... I know the kind of image you must have of Iran... maybe every time you hear the word 'terror' or 'terrorist,' the name of Iran comes to your mind... did you know that we are unjustly treated from both sides? From inside, they take our freedoms away, and outside, they think we are terrorists... I understand why you would think that, but maybe the time has come for me to scream: 'free people of the world: we are not terrorists! but we are victims of terrorism...' If you have been feeling terror since September 11, you know how we have felt for 30 years... did you know that the Iranian regime has divided its own people into friends and enemies? Did you know that any criticism of the Supreme Leader in Iran is forbidden and punishable by death? If you wonder how they kill us so easily, it's because they don't consider us as human beings... Your government says that it supports the freedom fighters of Iran... we don't need your physical intervention, but we need you to amplify the voice of Iranians throughout the world... please pressure our government to establish a 24-hour news channel that would show all sides of the debate... The dictatorial regime can only survive if the people remain in the darknesss... that's why they are so terrified of 8 hours of daily programming from Voice of America... Did you know that many of the bloody images that the people of the world are seeing from our streets haven't even reached millions in Iran... [and] many Iranians have no idea about the way Neda [Soltani] was killed? As I write this, I am choking back the tears... why should your young people live in freedom and security and my youth burn in the repression of this regime?
-Fatemeh

"Dear friend... the people of Iran are very different than those of other countries from the Middle East in that they are immensely interested in having good relations with the United States... I am sure one of the reasons President Obama doesn't say much is because the people in Arabic countries, Iraq and Afghanistan have had a negative reaction to American intervention, but Iran is different... thirty years of religious regime since the 1979 revolution has created a strong sense of animosity among Iranians toward religious tendencies... ... Even if President Obama just cares about the Iranian nuclear program and doesn't want to meddle in Iran's affairs, he needs to know that if he strongly supports the people of Iran and speak action against this regime, the cost to him will be much lower than the cost he has to pay after the regime successfully represses the people of Iran and the Islamic hardliners obtain nuclear capability? President Obama: Be alert and speak up soon! President Obama: Thank you for being mindful and not wanting to meddle in Iranian affairs... but why would we write our signs in English [in protests] if we didn't want the West's help?"
-Ramin

"I want to ask President Obama to base his policies on human rights! If he is interested in the interests of the United States, he should know that the price of oil is not the lives of human beings. He needs to know that if he recognizes [Ahmadinejad's] government and tries to have friendly relations with him for the next four years, he not only will have abandoned millions of Iranians, but the whole world! Even if starting today there is no more bloodshed and protests subside and everyone caves to misery, President Obama must fight for those innocent Iranians who have already lost their lives... or Iran will continue to serve the Russian interests, sponsor terrorism, wage aggressive foreign policies, spread of radicalism and undermine the greatest achievement of humanity--democracy. Long live Freedom."
-Pedram

"I think he needs to hold on and wait and see how the events develop... wait for them to resolve their own conflicts... for now, leave Iran alone."
-Nazak

"You rightly insisted that Iran's issue is a "human rights issue". Iran is also a signatory to the UDHR. So, it is a responsilbility of all the UN members to hold the I.R. responsible for its commitments."
-Ali

Come back throughout the week for more letters.

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Comments

[Squaker]

I nearly spit up my drink when I read the person claiming "Iraq and Afghanistan have had a negative reaction to American intervention, but Iran is different"
No there wouldn't be any resistance to American intervention in Iran LMAO.

To pretend everyone is against Ammedinijad is quite silly. From the polling available about 50% of their country supports him over Mousavi, no matter what the state of their electoral process.
Its very similar to our situation in 2000. Many believe our election was stolen. Yet to not recognize that Bush did have strong support is silly. And while I'm sure some Gore supporters would favor a foreign country coming in and backing Gore, most would not. Even among the Gore supporters intervention by another nation would not be popular. And then imagine that the country wanting to intervene is our longtime enemy Iran, let alone a friend like Canada. It wouldn't fly

I remember this game before the Iraq war. All the Iraqi's we saw on TV assured us of flowers from the people when we invaded. It turns out that the english speaking people who want America to step in to their politics don't represent the mainstream of muslim world.

[Sam Sedaei - Huffpost Blogger]

I understand your worries about the parallels you seem to observe between this situation and the one before Iraq. But what's important to understand is that unlike before Iraq, no one here is advocating anything remotely similar to any kind of military invasion. And none of these letters say anything in support of the idea of an American invasion of Iran, and in fact, I can tell you that Iranians repeatedly tell me that they DON'T want that.

Nonetheless, let's not delude ourselves with excuses and apologies for the murderous Iranian regime that's killing innocent protesters everyday. What is this polling that says Ahmadinejad has so much more support? Polls in Iran are meaningless because for the most part, only those who agree with the regime answer the questions because the other ones know their answers may bring intelligence ministry agents to their doors. You can't just rely on them as if they were done in New York. That's Iran. This is America.

To invade or turn a blind eye on bloodshed and massacre are false choices. We can be vigorous in our condemnation of injustice and shedding of innocent blood without wanting to hastily militarily intervene. Speaking up for human rights is not interference; it's doing the right thing.

[JustGinger]

This does not seem to be from someone in Iran.

**"I think he needs to hold on and wait and see how the events develop... wait for them to resolve their own conflicts... for now, leave Iran alone."
-Nazak ***

"Them" would have been "us"

so in my mind he does not count.

[JohnIII]

I believe Obama could have come out a little stronger. It's a touchy situation I know but his responses seemed weak and not very passionate. I'm not talking about military intervention or sending advisors either. Just a clear line drawn in the sand. And if Obama intends on negotiating with the regime after this, he will look like a fool.

[gdstark]

It's ALL about democracy. Period. And the BEST thing Obama could to promote democracy is to push for democratic reform of the United Nations itself. The undemocratic nature of the UN makes it an ineffective, illegitimate organization, unfit and unwilling to promote democratic growth in the world. We need something more like this...

http://www.UnitedDemocraticNations.org

gary

[IdealistWithoutIllusions]

Incredible... why didn't anyone think of this before?