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Annlinn Kruger
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MDI’S SPECIAL CONNECTION TO U.S. AND IRAN RELATIONS THROUGH OUR LATE NEIGHBORS
To the Editor:
Pres. Trump has brought the United States directly into the war between Israel and Iran. Our involvement with Iran has a long and fraught history - from the 1953 CIA involvement in overthrowing a democratically elected Iranian government to Iran's prolonging holding American hostages and helping elect Ronald Reagan, to the Reagan-Bush Iran Contra scandal. A brighter moment was the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or Iran Nuclear Deal between the U. S., France, Russia, the U.K., Germany, and the European Union. It was not perfect, but it was sufficient to suppress Iran's development of nuclear weapons. Until Pres. Trump scuttled it during his first term. Predictably, unbound by international oversight, Iran proceeded to develop its nuclear capacity. And here we are.
MDI has a special connection to the history of U. S. and Iran, through our late neighbors Moorehead C. Kennedy and Louisa Livingston Kennedy. Mr. Kennedy was a Foreign Service officer held hostage by Iran for over a year and Mrs. Kennedy led a world-wide effort on behalf of the hostages and their families. Throughout the ordeal and later life, the Kennedys emphasized the need for better understanding between our nations—specifically challenging us to reshape diplomacy with the Islamic world to include knowledge of and respect for different experiences shaping different perspectives on government and international relations.
The Persian national epic, The Shahnameh or Book of Kings, has insights relevant to our own situation. It records, "It was a bad time. The rich paid no taxes and squabbled among themselves." Also, "a beast appeared attacking the other beasts of the field. It shown like gold but was all corruption within." And "a king wanted to destroy a city. His vizier objected, saying that if he did so then people would hate him. Instead he should appoint an ignorant and loudmouthed governor who would destroy the city."
We may have more in common with Iranians than we know. We'd do well to learn from the Kennedys. And from our own Constitution, which assigns a declaration of war to our elected officials in Congress—coming to consensus through the reasoned debate of empirical evidence. With millions of Americans joining peaceful No Kings protests across the nation while Trump's military birthday extravaganza fizzled, Trump changing the conversation by unilaterally deciding to bomb Iran seems a spectacularly bad move.
Annlinn Kruger
Bar Harbor
The constitution has become a meaningless document. Our "supreme" court, despite being full of so-called originalists, has decided that much of it means whatever is politically expedient.