Iran Rebuked After Aiding U.S.

Re “Bush Vows to Take War on Terror to Hostile Nations, Calls for Unity,” Jan. 30: After 1) opposing the Taliban many years before most Americans had ever heard of it; 2) allowing the United States to use its air space for attacking the Taliban; 3) providing crucial intelligence on the Taliban and military aid to the Northern Alliance, the dominant anti-Taliban force; 4) opening its roads and ports on the Persian Gulf to humanitarian aid sent to the Afghan people; 5) using its strong influence over the Northern Alliance to help prevent failure of the international conference in Germany that brought the present Afghan government to power; and 6) promising $560 million in aid to Afghanistan, Iran is now accused by President Bush of being part of the “axis of evil.”

With such expressions of “gratitude” by the U.S., and given what is being done to the Palestinian people by Israel, the U.S.’s closest ally, is it still any wonder why the U.S. has no friend in the Middle East? To find the axis of evil, we do not need to travel to the Middle East. We can easily find it among the warmongers in the Bush administration.

Muhammad Sahimi

Los Angeles