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Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad launched a scathing attack on US President George W. Bush's policies in an unprecedented letter to the American people in which he urged the 144,000 US troops to leave Iraq.
“Now that Iraq has a constitution and an independent assembly and government, would it not be more beneficial to bring the US officers and soldiers home and to spend the astronomical US military expenditures in Iraq for the welfare and prosperity of the American people?” the Iranian leader said in a letter released by his country's UN mission here.
He reinforced that message in Tehran Wednesday as his Iraqi counterpart Jalal Talabani wrapped up a three-day visit to Iran.
“I advise you to leave Iraq to save whatever reputation you have left. Leave the responsibilities to Iraqi officials according to a timetable as the Iraqi government wants,” Ahmadinejad said, echoing calls earlier by Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
In his letter addressed to “Noble Americans”, Ahmadinejad pointed out that since the start of the US-led war in Iraq in 2003, “hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been killed, maimed or displaced.”
“I consider it extremely unlikely that you, the American people, consent to the billion of dollars of annual expenditure from your treasury for this military misadventure.”
In Washington, State Department spokesman Tom Casey dismissed the letter as “a public relations stunt or a public relations gesture” that brought nothing new.
“Our nation has always extended its hand of friendship to all other nations of the world,” Ahmadinejad said as he sought to establish a direct dialogue with Americans by bypassing their government.
Citing a “common responsibility to promote and protect freedom and human dignity and integrity”, he said that “human values and our common human spirit … have brought our two great nations of Iran and the United States closer together.”
But while he was conciliatory toward the American public, the Iranian was scathing in his denunciation of the Bush administration's policies.
“The legitimacy, power and influence of a government do not emanate from its arsenals of tanks, fighter aircraft, missiles or nuclear weapons,” he noted. “Legitimacy and influence reside in sound logic, quest for justice and compassion and empathy for all humanity.”
“The global position of the United States is in all probability weakened because the administration has continued to resort to force, to conceal the truth and to mislead the American people about its policies and practices,” Ahmadinejad said.
Last May, he had already sent a surprise, rambling 18-page letter to Bush in which he proposed a return to religious principles as a means of restoring confidence but made no mention of his country's controversial nuclear program.
His latest letter also condemned terrorism but rhetorically asked: “Can terrorism be contained and eradicated through war, destruction and the killing of hundreds of thousands of innocent?”
But there was no word on the standoff over Tehran's refusal to comply with UN demands that it halt sensitive nuclear fuel work.
Ahmadinejad referred to the “discontent” of the US electorate reflected in the outcome of the November 7 elections which saw Bush's Republican Party lose control of both houses of Congress to opposition Democrats.
“I hope that in the wake of the mid-term elections, the administration of President Bush will have heard and will heed the message of the American people,” he said.
Ahmadinejad, a fierce critic of Israel's treatment of the Palestinians, also took aim at Washington's steadfast support for the Jewish state.
“What have the Zionists done for the American people that the US administration considers itself obliged to blindly support these infamous aggressors? Is it not because they have imposed themselves on a substantial portion of the banking, financial, cultural and media sectors?” he said.
“I recommend that in a demonstration of respect for the American people and for humanity, the right of Palestinians to live in their own homeland should be recognized so that millions of Palestinian refugees can return to their homes and the future of all of Palestine and its form of government be determined in a referendum,” he added.
