An Open Letter to Barack Obama on Iran

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,

Please join these signatories and sign here:

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/ObamaIran/

(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