U.S. aggression is cause of problems

Re “Fencing with Tehran,” editorial, Aug. 12

I had a good belly laugh when your editorial advocating economic sanctions against Iran talked about Iranian provocations. The “provocations” are claims that Iran, as official policy of the state, trains Iraqi insurgents and supplies them with improvised explosive devices. There is no evidence that either of these claims is true. Even if they were, these actions fit comfortably into the category of self-defense against the great provocateur -- the United States. After all, we did invade both of Iran’s neighbors and have occupied Iraq with 160,000 soldiers and a like number of contractors. All this aggression from a nation 14,000 miles distant from this region seems very much like a provocation against Iran. The Times would be a far better paper if it could, somehow, ditch its blindly pro-U.S. perspective and start viewing events from the perspectives of the nations that the U.S. has made its victims by invasion, sanctions, blockades and preemptive war.

John Yates

Los Angeles

Re “U.S. to apply terrorist label to military,” Aug. 15

The Bush administration’s move to list Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization is the latest and most aggressive step toward attacking Iran. In a time when Americans are sick of the illegal, clumsy and disastrous war on Iraq, how can we stomach yet another major foreign policy failure?

The U.S. should not be in the business of attacking countries that haven’t directly attacked us, thereby killing innocent people. Not only can we not morally afford another war, we cannot fiscally afford it. The war on Iraq so far has cost billions. How much will an entrenched war with Iran cost?

Andrew Koenig

Venice