Views expressed by guest speakers do not necessarily express the views of BAIAD
Renowned Iranian-American Political
Science Professor Speaks Out on the
US
Presidential Election
Report by:
Hamid Karimi
Sunnyvale,
CA - October 3rd, 2004 -- BAIAD, Bay Area Iranian-American
Democrats (www.baiad.org), held its third open discussion
forum entitled “What Is at Stake, Why
This Is The Most Important Election of Our Lifetime”
with Dr. Abbas Milani, a Research Fellow at
Hoover Institution and visiting Political Science
professor at Stanford University as the keynote
speaker.
Mehrdad
Moayedzadeh,
the president of BAIAD and
Chris
Urkofsky,
a BAIAD officer were the first two
speakers. Moayedzadeh emphasized the importance
of Iranian-American participation in the political
engagements and reminded the audience that without
assuming an active role in the electoral process,
there is no reason for any politician to protect
the interests of our community. He reiterated the goal of BAIAD, which
is to empower the political voice of Iranian-Americans
through grassroots activism and tangible gains
at the ballot box. Moayedzadeh announced public service programs
by BAIAD to provide informational meetings on
statewide initiatives and  phone
banking operations to get out the Iranian-American
vote on November 2nd. Urkofsky then drew a distinct picture of
concept of progressive thinking and paraphrased
Madison
by saying that “
America
does not guarantee justice;
it just gives its citizens an opportunity to
afford it.”
Dr.
Milani
stated that the Iranian-American Diaspora
enjoy enormous economic and professional success
in scholarly, medical, technological and business
fields. However, the economic success has not
translated to political power and such disparity
is not realistic; therefore it would be unfathomable
to picture a static picture and we should expect
a major stride by this community to have its
voice heard. The
impact of greater participation by the potentially
powerful Iranian-American community will have
far reaching effects both here and abroad.
Milani further explained
that a second term
Bush
administration will have dire consequences not only for
Americans, but also for the entire planet. He characterized the upcoming election
as the “world election” where economic,
political and social well being of the world
community is at stake. The second term for Bush will move the
tenuous mandate of the first term to a new level
that will translate to loss of fundamental democratic
values in American society.
Dr.
Milani
presented two faces of current Republican
administration that are worthy of a closer look. First, the religious face, which is threatening
the genius of the American political system,
namely the unreachable divide between church
and state which combined the enormous moral
piety with an accountable system of government. Evangelical Christians as the religious
base of the Republican Party are gaining strength
and will use their clout in the second term
to influence the political process and reshape
the judicial system, apply pressure on religious
minorities and thus undermine democracy in
America
. Second, since Franklin D. Roosevelt, every
American president with the exception of Ronald
Reagan subscribed to the concept that it is
a role of the government to provide basic social
services and security to American citizens;
the notion basically supported a “welfare
state” that granted basic economic rights
to its weakest members. Realizing that a direct attempt to go
against such system would be politically quite
costly, the Reagan Administration took on an
indirect strategy referred to as “starving
the beast”, which is euphemism for making
the government incapable of helping society’s
neediest by making sure that it doesn’t
have enough resources to do so.
Bush
has continued
this process by a policy of cutting taxes for
the rich and engaging in expensive preemptive
military adventurism to unprecedented levels
such that the government will lack the physical
capacity to sustain a viable social system.
According to Milani,
no matter who gets elected as president, “the
war on terror” as well as the question
of dealing with
Iran
will be top priorities of the next
US
government. Bush administration does not realize that
to be successful against terrorism, military
prowess plays a minor role and that most of
the energy should be devoted to education and
propaganda; to fight terrorism, one has to dry
the sea that terrorists thrive on. And such sea is nothing but despotic regimes,
anti-American sentiments and disillusioned masses
in impoverished nations. Milani suggested that
expansion of democracy and improving economic
conditions in the
Middle East
will go a long way in stopping the
growth of terrorism.
 Dr.
Milani criticized those Iranians who advocate
attacking
Iran
for the sake of regime
change. He cautioned that no matter who gets
elected,
Iran
will not be attacked
since US lacks the resources to take on such
a dangerous and foolish endeavor; we should
remember that after 1953 coup, Shah lost the
legitimacy to lead
Iran
and was rejected by
Iranians.
Milani also dismissed
as “unlikely” a US or Israeli strike
against Iranian nuclear facilities since such
undertaking will not bring tangible results
and only intensifies the tension in the region,
especially at a time when Iran’s influence
in Iraq and America’s need to use that
positively is rather evident. In
addressing the Iranian issue,
America
has to bring Europe,
China
,
and to an extent
Russia
, on the same page
to be successful.
Kerry
, he argued, has a better chance of achieving that
goal and that may result in reaching a grand
bargain with
Iran
. The problem is that US has not had an
articulated “
Iran
strategy” since
the days of Nixon. The lack of a consistent policy and a
solid strategy has led to mixed signals and
failed policies over decades. It is time to realize that imposing embargo
on
Iran
has only benefited
some of the European countries as well as opportunist
elements within
Iran
at the expense of the
Iranian people and US companies.
In the end, Dr. Milani
asked Iranian Americans not be colluded by the
media bias and question the legitimacy of the
information they receive. That is the only way to remain objectively
informed and make better citizenry.
###
About
Dr. Abbas Milani:
Visiting
Professor, Dept. of Political Science, Stanford
University
Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford
University
Dr.
Milani taught at Tehran University and the National
University of Iran (Daaneshgaah-e Melli) until
1986, when he immigrated to US. He is the author
of The Persian Sphinx: Amir Abbas Hoveyda
and the Riddle of the Iranian Revolution (Mage,
2000); Modernity and Its Foes in Iran (Gardon Press, 1998); Tales of Two Cities:
A Persian Memoir (Mage, 1996); On Democracy
and Socialism, a collection of articles
coauthored with Faramarz Tabrizi (Pars Press,
1987); and Malraux and the Tragic Vision (Agah Press, 1982). His latest book is Rethinking
Persian Modernity (forthcoming). Milani
has also translated numerous books into Persian.
He has been interviewed for
radio and television, appearing on the BBC,
CNN, Radio and Television of Iran, and Voice
of America. His articles have been published
in magazines and newspapers including the New
York Review of Books, the San Francisco Chronicle,
and the Times Literary Supplement.
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Views expressed by guest speakers do not necessarily express the views of BAIAD |
