Front page story in Gazette
Local peace activists turn attention to Iran
Author(s): SARA FOSS
Gazette Reporter Date: May 6, 2007
The anti-war fliers handed out by members of Women Against War last May at the Tulip Festival in Albany's Washington Park didn't focus on Iraq. They focused on Iran. "American and Iranian mothers both feel horror at news reports of the Bush administration's planned options for bombing Iran, even using nuclear weapons," the fliers read. "We do not want our children to die in a preventable war. We know women, children and other innocent civilians are the major victims of war."
After the Tulip Festival, the group didn't organize any other Iran-related activities, instead devoting its energy to projects dealing with Iraq. Maud Easter, a member of Women Against War who handed out fliers, said it's hard to concentrate on Iran when the situation in Iraq is still such a huge concern. "During this year we've gotten pretty distracted with Iraq," she said.
But that's about to change. Women Against War will hold a special meeting May 17 to discuss Iran and figure out how it can raise awareness of the possibility of a U.S.-Iranian war. "There's a lot of concern among members," Easter said. "We hope to come up with a strategy for how, as women peace activists, we can approach the issue."
Even as the war in Iraq rages on, local peace activists are growing more concerned about what they perceive as the Bush administration's desire to go to war with a country the president described as being part of an "axis of evil" in 2002. They are planning activities, circulating petitions and inviting speakers to talk about Iran-U.S. relations. Most of all, they say they worry that the U.S. will repeat the mistakes it made with Iraq.
"A lot of us have been really concerned about this for a while," said Trudy Quaif, a member of Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace. "A lot of us spend a lot of time talking about it and thinking about it. There's a lot of hard work ahead of us."
Citizen intervention
Former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter, a Bethlehem resident, gave a talk in April on U.S.-Iran relations at the Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy. The event was sponsored by a coalition of local peace groups, including the Iran Working Group, Troy Peace Action, Schenectady Neighbors for Peace and the Saratoga Peace Alliance. Last week, Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace hosted peace activist Ed Kinane, who spoke about his recent trip to Iran. Members of these groups say they plan to continue hosting talks and other cultural events.
Three Capital Region residents travelled to Iran and Syria in 2005 as part of a trip sponsored by a group called Academics for Peace. Since then, they've held numerous presentations at churches, schools and peace groups in the hopes of teaching people about Iran and the potential for war.
At these talks, "We tell people that we were misled into Iraq, and that we shouldn't be misled into Iran," said Carole Ferraro, a member of Upper Hudson Peace Action's Iran Working Group, a committee formed in 2006 that focuses on Iran. "People are really curious about Iran."
"That's why we give the talks," said Cohoes resident Diane Reiner, who traveled to Iran with Ferraro and John Amidon, who heads the Capital Region chapter of Veterans for Peace, and shows her photographs of Iran during the presentations. "We're interested in promoting people's understanding of Iran in a different way."
The trip occurred at a pivotal time, said Ferraro, an Albany resident who teaches English as a second language at the University at Albany. "[Iranian president] Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had just been elected. We had just elected Bush again. When we came back to the U.S., the drumbeats for war began," she said.
"Having been there, I feel a responsibility to keep talking about it," Ferraro said.
Ferraro, Amidon and Reiner spent 10 days in Iran and four days in Syria. In Iran, they travelled to Tehran, the capital, and the cities of Shiraz and Isfahan. The underlying purpose of the trip was to engage in "citizen diplomacy" -- to meet with government officials and residents. "When the government is failing, it's time for citizens to intervene," Amidon explained. "We have a government that brags about not speaking to people."
"The mantra of the trip was 'Dialogue is essential or conflict is inevitable,' " Ferraro said.
All three said they were welcomed by the Iranians they met, and they were impressed with how sophisticated the country is. They said they decided to travel to Iran to learn more about the culture there and because they feel such trips help prevent war. "We went because we felt the information we were getting here in our press and from the Bush administration wasn't credible," Amidon said. "I really felt obligated to try to prevent another war."
"I'd never been to the Middle East," Reiner said. "I love to travel, but I'd never considered going to the Middle East. I was never interested. But when I heard about this, it seemed like an unbelievably fascinating trip. I had to look at a map to see where Iran and Syria were. My friends and family were like, 'Are you crazy?' That made me more interested. I was interested in going and seeing the country for myself."
Typically, Women Against War focuses on how war affects women and children. Reiner said the Bush administration claimed helping women was a reason to go to war in Iraq and Afghanistan, but women and children have suffered during those wars. She's worried something similar would happen in Iran. "When a culture is under attack, it usually becomes more conservative," she said. "It tries to preserve its differentness. [Women and children] would probably be hurt by this empowering of conservatives."
Shaky relations
The United States cut diplomatic ties with Iran shortly after the 1979 storming of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, in which Iranian militants took more than 60 Americans hostage.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with Syria's foreign minister last week at a conference on Iraq held in Egypt, but said there were no plans for a meeting with Iran's foreign minister. She and Iran's foreign minister exchanged pleasantries over lunch Friday, but did not hold talks.
The Bush administration has resisted talks with Syria and Iran, despite the recommendations of allies abroad and the Iraq Study Group. The U.S. says it believes Iran is building a program to create nuclear weapons; this month the country, which claims it is trying to develop nuclear power, announced it has begun operating 3,000 centrifuges in defiance of U.N. demands that it halt its nuclear program or face increased sanctions.
The U.S. accused Iran in March of supplying weapons that have been used in Iraq to kill American troops.
Seymour Hersh reported in The New Yorker last month that the Bush administration has publicly supported diplomacy in order to stop Iran from creating a nuclear weapon, while increasing clandestine activities inside the country and planning for a possible major air attack. Such incidents and reports make peace activists wary.
"To not talk to [the Iranians] is just insane," Reiner said. "They do want to talk to us. They'd like a peaceful resolution. The thought of another Iraq is unimaginable."
"It's all so interrelated," Easter said. "The Bush administration's refusal to talk with Iran about the situation in Iraq postpones the stability of Iraq."
Reach Gazette reporter Sara Foss at 395-3193 or sfoss@dailygazette.net.
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