Response to Senator Burr

I received a letter from Senator Burr dated April 19,2010 that is full of inaccuracies. This is my response to him, posted on his web page.

Iran is not developing nuclear weapons.

Iran has helped find peaceful solutions to conflict in Iraq on at least two occasions.  There may be more than that - I just don't know about them.

Iran is not supporting terrorism.  Iran does not kidnap people (rendition) and sent them to another country (like GITMO), and Iran does have some torture of it's internal prisoners, the people responsible for that are being dealt with in the courts.

Iran has not invaded or attacked another country.  The stories about Iran selling weapons to insurgents in Iraq are lies.  If Iranian made weapons ended up in their hands, it is because someone OTHER THAN THE GOVERNMENT OF IRAN sold them to insurgents.  There are many more weapons in the Iraqi insurgents hands THAT WERE MADE IN THE USA.

And while I would not hold up Iran as a model of respect for human rights, the proposal of a bill in the US Congress targeting Iranians who do not respect human rights has got to be the height of hypocrisy.  Iran does not start wars, Iran is not occupying foreign countries, Iran does not have hundreds of bases around the planet, Iran does not kidnap, Iran does not authorize torture by it's citizens, Iran does not run secret prisons.  These are all human rights violations that the US GOVERNMENT DOES.

Senator Burr ends his letter saying he believes that the US should remain committed to peace in the Middle East.

WAR IS NOT PEACE.

OCCUPATION IS NOT PEACE.

PUTTING SANCTIONS ON A COUNTRY THAT HAS DONE NOTHING WRONG IS A STEP TOWARDS WAR.

It is also stupid, since it punishes the lower income people and makes the population more supportive of their government.  That is what sanctions did in Iraq, along with killing off about a half million children.  That was evil to do, and doing it again will also be massively evil.