Frank Richter (Letters, March 29) raises some interesting points
regarding Iran's nuclear weapons program, yet he demonstrates a
fundamental misunderstanding of the Iranian regime. He believes that
Iran's rulers would take into account the future of "Persians" before
deciding to nuke Israel. Since the overthrow of the Shah, Iran's mullahs
have moved the country away from its Persian roots and turned Iran into
a Shiite theocracy that has little to do with Persian history and has
everything to do with spreading the 1979 Revolution far and wide.
If only Iran's leaders
were Persian nationalists, the world would have little to fear. Persian
nationalists would not be arming Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza and
Shiite terror groups in Iraq. Persian nationalists would also not be
seeking to destroy Israel and would not view Jews, Christians,
Zoroastrians and Bahai as infidels. The dangerous movement away from a
Persian identity toward an extreme version of Shiite Islam has
accelerated under Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
As for Mr. Richter's
belief that Iran would not strike Israel out of fear of harming Muslim
holy sites, such sites are only of interest to Muslims as a means to
whip up hatred of Israel and Jews.
The ultimate flaw in Mr.
Richter's analysis is his belief that Iran's mullahs and Mr. Ahmadinejad
are rational human beings who are susceptible to deterrence. Iran's
leaders deny the Holocaust. Iran has spent billions of dollars to
develop nuclear weapons when its economy is in desperate need of
modernization, and it does not even have the capability of refining oil
to fulfill its needs. Rational would be the last word that would be used
to describe Iran's current leaders.
Josh Baker
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 