Ahmadinejad's New Letter

Today's Pittsburgh Tribune-Review carried an Associated Press article "Iran's letter to America just a PR stunt".

It was the first I heard of this, his second letter. What caught my attention was the reason the AP story gave why no one in America was interested.

It quoted some Iran specialist who said:

"'He's (Amadinejad's) ignorant of the attitude of American people' toward Iran....He believes that U.S. public opinion will be occupied with his letter and debate it. They (Iraninan leaders) have a huge lack of understanding of American public opinion and what moves it.'"

"Culture plays a role in his manner. In Iran --where discussions of poetry and theology are popular obsessions -- the abstract debate of ideas is a political tool not present in the United States". Ouch!

Well that got my attention and at least I read the letter. There was a lot of what might be expected and a lot that was not. It surprised me that he did speak with respect for the "God-fearing nations of the Iran and the US". One thought that stuck with me was that he said history has now "called these two great nations closer together at this time. " I had been think only in terms of drifting further apart.

You can read it for yourself at You can read it at http://www.foxnews.com/projects/pdf/iran_pres_letter.pdf


This letter, and his previous letter to President Bush in May, do set out how he sees the world and how he tries to explain it to his own people and how he thinks we think about this. I think he is more right about us being drawn closer together than the AP cited Iran specialist who thinks we are not interested in "the abstract debate of ideas". I just hope there is time for us to be drawn closer more for good than for ill.

Finally, contrary to the quoted Iran specialist, I trust that "the abstract debate of ideas" is still of great concern to the American public.