My letter to Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania
Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania
is an unabashed supporter of Israel .
In his latest email to me, he wrote, "I
have warned of the dangers that America
and her allies face when it comes to the Islamic Republic of Iran. This is not
a topic that is new to me. I have long supported the strongest possible
sanctions on Iran .
I wish the sanctions that have been in place had been stronger, and were begun
sooner.” He continued, “Unfortunately, President Obama is about to lift the
sanctions on Iran, providing them with a $100 billion cash infusion that will
likely be used to continue terror efforts around the globe."
His positions on international relations have not been
conducive to peace but have been stoking the flames of fires or wars. A shorter
version of my letter below was sent to him.
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Dear Mr.
Toomey,
I think a
wise man knows when to call it quits and take a new position that helps in the
long run. Your position on Iran ,
unfortunately, is hawkish and appeasing to warmongers in a world that is tired
of the curse of seemingly non-ending wars.
Nuclear bombs require enriched uranium or weapons-grade plutonium above
90% enrichment. Iran does not have and never had sufficient
amount of the weapons-grade uranium and/or plutonium that is required to make nuclear bombs. If you are unsure,
please, read the New York Times, dated December 28, 2015, where it says, “A
Russian ship left Iran on Monday carrying almost all of Iran’s
stockpile of low-enriched uranium, fulfilling a major step in the nuclear deal
struck last summer and, for the first time in nearly a decade, apparently
leaving Iran with too little fuel to manufacture a nuclear weapon. The shipment
was announced by Secretary of State John
Kerry and confirmed by
a spokesman for Russia’s civilian nuclear company, Rosatom.
Mr. Kerry called it “one of the most significant steps Iran has taken toward fulfilling
its commitment,” and American officials say that it may be only weeks before
the deal reached in July takes effect.” Mr.
Kerry, in a statement, said the ship, which Russian officials said was the
Mikhail Dudin, carried 25,000 pounds of nuclear material, which included the
fuel that had been enriched to 20 percent purity for a specialty reactor to
make medical isotopes. As per the deal signed last year, Iran is permitted to hold 300
kilograms, or about 660 pounds, of low-enriched uranium; but that is not enough
to produce a single weapon. In a telephone interview with NY Times, the Rosatom
spokesman, Sergei Novikov, said “the shipment fulfilled the requirement between
Iran , the United States and five other world powers,
including Russia, to remove Iran ’s stockpile of uranium
enriched to this level.”
You alluded in your email that with the lifting of the
sanctions on Iran , President
Obama will be “providing” Iran
with a “$100 cash infusion”. Your statement belies the truth and is very
misleading. The fact is, as reported rightly in the NY Times, “On ‘implementation day,’ roughly $100 billion in
Iranian assets will be unfrozen, and the country will be free to sell oil on
world markets and operate in the world financial system.” That $100 billion asset
belonged to Iran
all along; it was not ours to begin with. As President Obama rightly pointed
out, “We're not writing Iran
a check. This is Iran 's
money that we were able to block from them having access to.” It was frozen
money, which comes from Iranian oil sales and has been piling up in some
international banks over the past few years because of sanctions imposed by the U.S. in 2012 on Iran .
Mostly Asian nations like China ,
India , Japan , South Korea ,
Turkey and Taiwan buying oil from Iran agreed to hold the funds in
escrow until the sanctions are lifted. In other words, Iran sold them the oil but couldn't
move the cash back home. However, it was allowed to spend the money to buy
goods from those countries.
Mr. Senator, as you must know, Israel is the only Middle-Eastern country
which does possess not only atom bombs but also hydrogen bombs, reflecting its
enormous devastating power over every other state in the region, including Iran , Egypt and Saudi Arabia .
And yet, you
are silent on Israel 's nuclear capability but all agog about Iran , which does not have any. Why?
Whom are you benefiting through your anti-Iran and Israel-appeasing positions?
Is your pro-Israel position good for our American people? I doubt that
seriously.
Dear
senator, Americans are tired of hawkish positions by our lawmakers that only
light up the fire of war, and never seem to care about peace. They have, sadly,
become members of the ‘Amen Corner’ to please the War Party, the profiteers of
perennial war, something that President Eisenhower warned us about.
Well, you
might think that further punishment and sanctions on Iran would bring peace. No, sir, it is a
foolish and an untenable assertion. If you are so Gung Ho about world peace,
consider making the Middle East a nuclear free zone, by dismantling nuclear
arsenals of Israel , and
then work towards disarming other powerful bomb-makers. Will you have that
moral fervor to do this noble task?
With your
‘pick and choose’ or 'cherry picking' method of punishing a complier that is a
signatory to the NPT and rewarding a dodger that has never signed the NPT, I am
sorry to say that you are setting double-standards. Such positions are hypocritical
and do more harm than good.
It is time
to change course, and do what is right. Give peace a chance.
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