By: Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich

In the face of the growing US/Israeli threat, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called for Muslim unity, according to a BBC report.  His call is in response to the US-led naval exercises in the Persian Gulf which are allegedly for the purpose of intercepting ships carrying weapons of mass destruction and missiles.  The same BBC correspondent reporting this wonders whether the UN would authorize the search of ships headed to Iran."[i]  .   Although these day it has become an arduous task to make sense of politics and to make an intelligent speculation of the future, one thing is obvious to me, that the only reason there is such a thing called 'UN' is because 'US' was already taken. 

The past few years alone are testimony to my outrageous claim.  Even the curious behavior of the UN during the Iran-Iraq war when it looked the other way for three years while Iran was mercilessly being subjected to chemical warfare is too distant a past, I am talking about more recent years….

The illegal invasion of a sovereign country which has led to the deaths of 655,000 people and displaced over 1.6 million; the illegal use of phosphorous bombs considered to be a banned substance by the third protocol of the Geneva Convention  in Fallujah while the UN stood by (the US and Israel are the only two countries who have refused to sign the protocol).  

In the same vein, its protected ally, Israel demanded it needed time to destroy Lebanon, and UN allowed it time.  Additionally,  like the US, Israel used  phosphorous bombs  during the invasion of Lebanon.[ii]  Further, the State of Israel, with the backing of the UN/US has decided to create an experimental camp in Gaza (reminder of their historical past in Nazi Germany).  According to an investigative report on Italian television, Israel has used an experimental weapon in the Gaza Strip in recent months, causing especially serious physical injuries, such as amputated limbs and severe burns.[iii] 

The US has violated articles III and VI of the NPT, yet the IAEA, a body of the UN, has encouraged these violations. 

The Bush Administration is allowing the genocide in Sudan to continue unabated.  The women and young girls of Sudan who bundle together clad in such vivid colors  resembling the  magnificence of peacocks on parade, their tail spread to full spectrum for maximum affect in order to disguise their bleak misery so that we don't turn away in appall at the ugliness of their fate, implore us to help them, yet our Commander-in-Chief sends a private plane to their butcher, the intelligence chief to bring him to the US for information on Ben Ladin!

Mr. Bush wants information on Ben Ladin so that he can send more troops to the Persian Gulf!  This time he aims to Nuke Iran.   BBC correspondent, the United Nations will never impede the US from its end goal, no matter how illegal.    

Although Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei is right in condemning the US Persian Gulf exercises as being provocative and dangerous, he is mistaken in calling on Moslems alone to unite.  For too long, since the beginning of the George W. presidency, there has been a dangerous invocation of faith and a need for  a crusade giving opportunity to self-serving [1] neo-cons.  According to Germany's ex-Chancellor Schroedder who was firmly against the invasion of the Iraq war: "The problem I have with such a stance begins when the impression increases that political decisions are being made as a result of a conversation with God."[iv]  (One must wonder what kind of god would order death and destruction of a whole nation.) 

In the lead up to the Iraq war, along with the lies, madness and deception, history also witnessed a wave of extraordinary individuals who risked their lives to 'human-shields' in an effort to stop the illegal invasion of Iraq.  I daresay these brave individuals were predominantly non-Moslems.  Nor can one forget the millions of peace loving individuals around the world who rallied against the Iraq war.  The number has grown as they protest against an Iran invasion and demand peace.  The anti-war movement in the Western world is comprised of Moslems as well as non-Moslems.  Given the fear tactics of the US government, and the recent hostilities towards Moslems elsewhere, it is safe to conclude that the indigenous people of each country are by far more active in participating in peace demonstrations.  Their efforts should not be slighted; rather, they should be pleaded with and thanked.

Both Iran and the US have populations other than Moslems.  These populations should be respected.  The Jews and Christians in Iran are fighting for Iran as much as the Moslems are.  And in the United States, the Christians and many Jews are fighting equally hard for peace.  Their efforts are to be commended, not overlooked.

Although some would like to make this a war between Christianity and Islam, it is not.  The people around the world, who fight for Iran, do so because they have come to realize that the Bush White House has a colonial agenda and recognize Iran's rights, and the emphasis should remain on justice and peace.