Appealing to the United States is not very appealing
By William Blum
05/15/06 "Information Clearing House" --
-- With his recent letter to President Bush, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has become part of a long tradition of Third-World leaders who, under imminent military or political threat from the United States, communicated with Washington officials in the hope of removing that threat. Let us hope that Ahmadinejad's effort doesn't result in the equally traditional outright US rejection.
Under the apparently hopeful belief that it was all a misunderstanding, that the United States was not really intent upon crushing them and their movements for social change, the Guatemalan foreign minister in 1954, President Cheddi Jagan of British Guiana in 1961, and Maurice Bishop, leader of Grenada, in 1983 all made their appeals to be left in peace, Jagan doing so at the White House in a talk with President John F. Kennedy.(1) All were crushed anyhow. In 1961, Che Guevara offered a Kennedy aide several important Cuban concessions if Washington would call off the dogs of war. To no avail.
รข€¦ Continued @ ICH
William Blum is the author of "Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions Since World War 2 " and "Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower". < http://www.killinghope.org/ > He publishes a free monthly newsletter, Anti-Empire Report, which can be subscribed to by sending an email to < bblum6@aol.com >
