It's Time to Talk to Iran
[Washington Post, Letter to the Editor]
September 7, 2006David Ignatius makes a significant omission when comparing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's tactics to a game of chicken ["Ahmadinejad's High-Stakes Game," op-ed, Aug. 30]: Doesn't it take two to play that game?
One of the reasons that "nobody knows the rules of the road" in this nuclear standoff, as Mr. Ignatius correctly notes, is the Bush administration's incoherent and contradictory nuclear nonproliferation policies. It is rewarding India's nuclear weapons program with a deal to share technology; doing next to nothing about Pakistan's veritable nuclear Wal-Mart; winking at Israel's nuclear arsenal; unilaterally dropping out of arms control treaties such as the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty; and ignoring our own obligations to pursue nuclear disarmament under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Equally important is the fact that the administration has repeatedly upped the ante by threatening military action against Iran. The United States invaded neighboring Iraq, ostensibly over its nonexistent nuclear weapons program, and it is well remembered in Iran that the United States overthrew a democratically elected government in 1953 to install the brutal shah. Given all this, is it surprising that Iran's government is acting the way it is?
The Bush administration would have far more credibility if it had an evenhanded nonproliferation policy, a serious commitment to ridding the planet of the scourge of nuclear weapons and a track record of diplomacy instead of war.
Kevin Martin, Executive Director
Gordon Clark, Communications Director
PEACE ACTION
