By William Boardman -- Reader Supported News
Blind Hatred for Iran Is Puerile Tantrum-throwing, Not Foreign Policy
In Congress, emotional demagoguery displaces rational debate
Have you thought much about just how stupid, petty, obtuse, dishonest, and hypocritical so many Senators, Representatives, and other American officials (including the President) have been in their "patriotic" fervor to protect the rest of us from a 57 year-old professional diplomat whose only demonstrable threatening trait is that he's Iranian?
The Iranian in question, Hamid Aboutalebi, has a Ph.D. in historical sociology and has served as Iran's ambassador to Australia, the European Union, Belgium, and Italy, all of which appear to have survived unscathed by his presence. In the 1990s, even the U.S. was unafraid to allow Aboutalebi to be a member of Iran's United Nations delegation in New York, and everyone survived that, too.
On April 11, 2014, the White House formally confirmed what it had been indicating for days, that the U.S. would deny Aboutalebi a visa to enter the country, thereby preventing him from assuming his post as Iran's ambassador to the UN.
As the host country for the UN, the U.S. has a legal obligation to accept the appointed ambassadors of other sovereign countries. The UN ambassadors from Syria and North Korea were admitted to the country bur required to remain within a 25-mile radius of New York City. The government has cited no precedent, no legal basis, and no credible factual basis for denying Iran its choice of its own ambassador. Iran is appealing the American decision through the UN legal process.
Why was there no public opposition to this rush to mis-judgment?
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).