An Open Letter to Barack Obama on Iran

An Open Letter to Barack Obama on Iran

Please join these signatories and sign below

(organizations listed for identification purposes only)

Michael Albert ZNet
Cathy Albisa exec. director, National Economic and Social Rights Initiative
John W. Amidon U.S. Veterans for Peace
Stanley Aronowitz Professor of Sociology, Graduate Center, CUNY
Rosalyn Baxandall Distinguished Teaching Professor, SUNY Old Westbury
Phyllis Bennis Institute for Policy Studies
Stephen Eric Bronner Professor (II) of Political Science, Rutgers University
Charlotte Bunch exec. director, Center for Women's Global Leadership, Rutgers Univ.
Noam Chomsky Institute Professor (retired), MIT
Ray Close retired CIA Middle East specialist; Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
Rhonda Copelon Professor of Law, CUNY Law School
Hamid Dabashi Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature, Columbia Univ.
Lawrence Davidson Professor of Middle East History, West Chester Univ.
Ariel Dorfman author
Stuart Ewen, Distinguished Professor, Hunter College & the Graduate Center, CUNY
John Feffer co-director, Foreign Policy in Focus
Bill Fletcher, Jr. exec. editor, BlackCommentator.com
Libby Frank Women's Internat'l League for Peace & Freedom, Philadelphia
Arthur Goldschmidt Professor emeritus of Middle East History, Penn State Univ.
Tom Hayden author
Doug Henwood Left Business Observer
Doug Ireland journalist
James E. Jennings exec. director, U.S. Academics for Peace
Nikki Keddie UCLA (emeritus), historian, Iran specialist
Janet Kestenberg Amighi v.p., CDR (sponsor of Holocaust child survivor research)
Rabbi Michael Lerner chair, The Network of Spiritual Progressives; editor, Tikkun mag.
Mark LeVine Prof. of Modern Middle Eastern History, Culture and Islamic Studies, U. Cal., Irvine
Manning Marable director, Center for Contemporary Black History, Columbia Univ.
David McReynolds former chair, War Resisters Internat'l
Rosalind Petchesky Distinguished Prof. of Poli. Sci., Hunter College & the Graduate Center, CUNY
Rachel Pfeffer interim exec. director, Jewish Voices for Peace
Katha Pollitt writer
Danny Postel No War on Iran Coalition, Chicago
Matthew Rothschild editor, The Progressive magazine
Stephen R. Shalom Prof. of Poli. Sci., William Paterson Univ.
(Rev.) David Whitten Smith Univ. of St. Thomas, Minnesota (emeritus)
Meredith Tax writer; president, Women's WORLD
Michael J. Thompson editor of Logos
Chris Toensing editor, Middle East Report
Cornel West Professor, Princeton University
Stephen Zunes Professor of Politics, Univ. of San Francisco

Dear Senator Obama,

We the undersigned may have different views on U.S. foreign policy with respect to Iran. We all, however, are deeply concerned about the stories in the press in the past few weeks suggesting that the Bush administration might be considering a military strike on Iran, that it might give a green light to such an attack by Israel, or that it might engage in other acts of war, such as imposing a blockade against Iran.

We welcomed your stand against the war on Iraq in 2002. And we were encouraged by your early campaign statements emphasizing diplomacy over military action against Iran. Today, you have an opportunity to forestall a repeat of the tragic Iraq war. We hope you will use that opportunity.

We agree with the conclusion of Muhammed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, that "A military strike ... would be worse than anything possible. It would turn the region into a fireball..." A military attack, he said, "will mean that Iran, if it is not already making nuclear weapons, will launch a crash course to build nuclear weapons with the blessing of all Iranians, even those in the West." (Reuters, June 20, 2008.)

We don't know, of course, whether an attack on Iran is in fact being considered, or if there are serious plans to initiate other acts of war, such as a blockade of the country. But we call on you to issue a public statement warning of the grave dangers that any of these actions would entail, and pointing out how inappropriate and undemocratic it would be for the Bush administration to undertake them, or encourage Israel to do so, in its closing months in office.

An attack on Iran would violate the UN Charter's prohibition against the use or threat of force and the Congress's authority to declare war. Moreover, the public right to decide should not be foreclosed by last-minute actions of the Bush administration, which will set U.S. policy in stone now.

We were heartened by your earlier comments suggesting that an Obama administration would act on the understanding that genuine security requires a willingness to talk without preconditions (something Iran has offered several times to no avail), and that threats and military action are counterproductive. We hope you will follow through on these commitments once in office, but also that you will speak out now against any acts of war by the Bush administration.

Sincerely,

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For more information about this petition, please contact Janet Amighi or Steve Shalom at Obama_Iran_Letter@ymail.com

#	First Name	Last Name	Affiliation (for identification purposes only)	City, state
7051	Mabel	Leon
7052	Richard	Anderson		Palm Bay, Fl
7053	Michelle	Bolourchi		California
7054	Nazli	Monahan	Director, Aarrow Publications	Orinda, CA
7055	Dean	Metcalfe
7056	Darlene	Davis
7057	Charlotte	Mazza		Chicago, Illinois
7058	Craig	Sullivan
7059	Allen	Shaibani
7060	Ahmad	Sha
7061	Senan	Shaibani
7062	Jonathan	Roberts		Houston, Texas
7063	Arwa	Kaso		Houston, TX
7064	Lori	Kincses	Archivist, Mississippi Department of Archives and History	Jackson, Mississippi
7065	Alexander	Lane		Raleigh, NC
7066	Fatemeh	Keshavarz	Professor	St. Louis, MO
7067	Dan	Colahan		Galloway, Ohio
7068	Nick	Langeland		Grand Rapids, MI
7069	mina	mostofi	none	MD
7070	Lee	Davis		Portland
7071	ardy	mozafari		Toronto, Canada
7072	Wayne	Page	Network Engineer	Palmerton, PA
7073	Sharat G.	Lin	San Jose Peace and Justice Center	San Jose, CA
7074	Kazuyo	Kishimoto	Pastor, UCCJapan	Sapporo, Japan
7075	Barbara	Mathes	normal German Person	Jesenwang, Germany
7076	Phuck	Yoo Obama	Obama can suck it	Your mouth, my Cock
7077	Emil	VanLancker	Veteran	Portland
7078	Vanessa	Handschumacher	Activist	Everywhere, USA
7079	Andrew	Perry		Appleton, WI
7080	William	Simms
7081	Daniel	Durrant	Dayzen Inc.	Eugene, Or
7082	tim	mattie	rhetorictician	El Paso
7083	Devin	Andelin	Student, Weber State University	Riverdale, Utah
7084	Christopher	Beal	Graduate Student, Returned Peace Corps Volunteer	Minneapolis, Minnesota
7085	Alexander	Keane	Student, University of Washington	Seattle, WA
7086	Anibal	Miranda		Milwaukee, WI
7087	František	Stočes	editor of www.netsocan.cz
7088	Laura	French
7089	Massood	Seyedin
7090	Roxanna	Seyedin
7091	Aban	Seyedin	Professor of Mathematics
7092	Ghobud	Seyedin
7093	Arsalan	Ziazie		Los Angeles, CA
7094	Reza	Bavafa		RPV CA
7095	Ali M.	Shakeri	Center for Citizen Peacbuilding-UCI	Irvine, California
7096	Philip	Blaising	retired	Phoenix, Arizona
7097	Sally	Junot		Phoenix, Arizona
7098	Brian	Johnston		Phoenix, Arizona
7099	Manu	Nouri	Iran National front	Rancho Mirage Ca.
7100	Abdol	Soofi	Professor of Economics, University of Wisconsin-Platteville	Madison, Wisconsin