Hopefully, UO President Dave Frohnmayer won’t follow Mark Grant’s suggestion and stoop to the crude and rude tactics of Columbia’s Lee Bollinger (“A call for Frohnmayer to speak openly and honestly about Iran’s president,” ODE, Sept. 26). To invite someone to speak and then ream them out before they utter one word is shameful.
You want to speak openly and honestly about Iran? Then tell the whole story. Talk about how President Eisenhower and the CIA ran a covert operation and overthrew the democratically elected Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh. Talk about how the tanks stormed the Capitol and bombarded the Prime Minister’s residence. Talk about the how we installed the U.S.-friendly Shah of Iran. Talk about the thousands of Iranian citizens who were murdered in this coup. Talk about how the Shah crushed all forms of political opposition. Talk about how oil played a key role with British and U.S. interests. (Does any of this sound familiar?) Talk about how the Iranian people overthrew the Shah and fell under the rule of Ayatollah Khomeini. Talk about how U.N. inspectors have concluded after extensive study and investigation there are no nukes in Iran. Nuclear ENERGY program, yes. But not a nuclear weapons program. Talk about how the U.S. media is manufacturing claims that the president of Iran has threatened Israel with annihilation and is supplying Iraqi insurgents with weapons (both false claims).
You want to make Mahmoud Ahmadinejad out to be the new evil one? No. Ahmadinejad is just the result of our own selfish self interests and lawless behavior.
Hopefully, Frohnmayer would never act in such a shameful manner as Bollinger did.
Sarah Ruth
Eugene