My letter answering Melanie Scarborough, which originated my entry "Melanie Scarborough's alternative economic reality", originated an answer by Nelson Marans. Marans's answer is the typical Right wing Republican chain of imaginary facts and real arrogance so I decided to publish it with my answer in the same entry. You may find in this entry something useful to persuade voters. Maybe not. What I know is that Marans's involuntary jokes and my voluntary ones will make this entry reasonably funny.
As always, I thank The Examiner in case it publishes my letter, and excuse any possible grammatical mistake of this entry. I am writing it in a hurry so I had no time to edit such details. Again, cheerleaders coming from Sesame Street, go play a video game or something else away from my entry.
- Next is the letter written by Nelson Marans on September 29 under the title "Obama, not McCain, is the real Carter clone" to refute my letter published by the Examiner commenting Melanie Scarborough's last attack to Obama. You can also find this last letter on my entry "Melanie Scarborough's alternative economic reality":
Alfredo de Bravo de Rueda did not have to change the party affiliation to present a true successor to the failed economic and foreign policies of Jimmy Carter, as the current Democratic candidate appears to be his clone.
With a policy of negotiating with dictators instead of confronting them (1), Barack Obama has indicated that he will continue President Carter's flawed Iranian policy -which included the overthrow of the shah of Iran and the coming to power of radical Muslim fundamentalism under the leadership of Ayatollah Khomenei.
How was Carter repaid for his ardent support for the new regime? (2) Iran's new theocratic government seized our embassy personnel and held them for ransom. (3)
This is the same government, now close to acquiring nuclear weapons (4), that Obama is willing to negotiate with absent prior conditions -a route that has failed for the last 30 years (5).
Carter's domestic legacy was runaway inflation and high unemployment. (6)
Hopefully this trait will not be inherited by his possible Democratic successor. (7)
Nelson Marans
Silver Spring
I have included a few notes that I could not include in the original letter, unavoidably long on its own:
(1) Nelson Marans could have found useful watching the first presidential debate to figure out what Obama's policy was on negotiating with foreign leaders and what preparations are. Maybe he found unnecessary to make some previous basic research.
(2) Actually Carter never supported Khomeini. He was a personal friend of the Shah so when the dying dictator asked him permission to enter the United States, Carter didn't denied it. Khomeini demanded the Shah was surrendered to Iran and that the unfreezing of the Iranian accounts. Carter's refusal was the event that precipitated the 444-day Iranian hostage crisis. Khomeini retained the hostages until after the election to hurt Carter's only remaining hope of reelection and even waited until Reagan took office to deny Carter at least the satisfaction of getting their release on his administration. We don't know of any Reagan's attempt to accelerate this process.
(3) Actually the Iranian demands were the surrender of the Shah and the unfreezing of Iranian accounts.
(4) The CIA has a different opinion.
(5) Actually for 60 years we have preferred strong men to moderates with independent positions and I give examples of that in the letter. I wonder whether Marans's secret source is the Heritage Foundation.
(6) At least in the 70s Carter's energy crisis was the price he paid for supporting Israel. Now part of the speculative ingredient of the current oil price is a result of the Iraq war, a war whose real goal, beyond all the lies, was to sideline the Chinese, French and Russians that were negotiating oil concessions with Saddam. Until now, the only oil problem solved by the Iraq war is Shell's.
On the side of unemployment, the crisis is just beginning and serious economist are comparing this crisis not to Carter's but to Hoover's.
(7) I don't recommend Marans to rely on Heritage as I would not recommend to base his attacks on The Onion. Nelson, they are not for real! Do you know what you are talking about? How long has it been since you has witnessed a chain of collapses (Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, WaMu, AIG, Bear Sterns, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac)? Nelson, when serious economists compare this crisis to that of 1929 they are talking about the Great Depression! "Hopefully this trait will not be inherited by his possible Democratic successor"?! Citibank unprecedently knocking the doors of sovereign funds not long ago and the recent financial collapses of several financial institutions are just a sample of overindebted companies. For years irresponsible promotion of overconsumption made by Bush and by the Federal Reserve through artificially low interest rates have ended up in overindebted Americans with depreciated houses to back their debts. Only the crooks who fundraised for your party collected up front millionaire severance packages and left us their mess. The crisis did not suddenly fell from the the sky. It was incubated for years of fiscal irresponsibility and irresponsible deregulation by your party. Remember Phil Gramm? He is McCain's main economic advisor and was behind the banking deregulation that led to this mess as was for the irresponsible deregulation of the derivatives market that let Enron corner California's electricity market in 2000-2001.
Had McCain won the Republican nomination as the maverick he used to be, you could have something to say but he changed 180 degrees after the Michigan primary. That's why his options are to be the Republican Jimmy Carter or Bush III.
- Now let me share with you my answer sent today to The Examiner and probably appearing in the section for letter of that newspaper:
Dear Sirs:
After the enlightenment provided by Marans I have decided to burn all my books. Still:
- Our love for the strong man is at the roots of Khomeini’s victory. We supported the coup to Mosadeq’s moderate line and unleashed a paranoid despot, the Shah Reza Pahlavi, who delivered Iranians to Khomeini’s arms. We loved the Shah’s shopping sprees of our weapons as we loved Saddam’s and other strong men with a big boot to keep the Third World silent. Has it worked?
- Our love for the strong men led us to poison the political systems of South America in the Nixon era and of Central America in the Reagan era. During the Cuban Revolution we sided with Batista and in Indochina we delivered Ho Chi Minh to the Soviet’s arms when we rejected his appeals to us to help him end the French colonialism after WWII. Sounds familiar?
- Marans says that Obama wants to negotiate with Ahmadinejad as Carter did with Khomeini. I didn’t know that there was ever a summit Carter-Khomeini but Marans must have his sources.
- I wasn’t aware either that Carter’s "Iranian policy (...) included the overthrow of the shah of Iran and the coming to power of (...) Khomenei" (sic) [It’s Khomeini] It must be the same source of paragraph 3.
- Marans says that Obama wants to negotiate without "prior conditions." If Marans wants to debate foreign policy may want to learn that Obama has not renounced preparations or even preemptive strikes if necessary. Pakistan?
- Iran’s strengthening is a result of the Iraq war and the overstretching of our forces in that front. Believe or not Nelson, Ahmadinejad knows it.
- Ayatollah Al-Sistani and other Iraqi politicians were sheltered by Iran during Saddam’s times. Even the last cease fire between Al-Sadhr and Maliki was brokered in Iran after Iraqi units refused to attack Al-Sadhr. It’s very unlikely they will prefer us to them. Really.
If McCain returns to his maverick ways, he will become a Republican Jimmy Carter, isolated of his own party. If he persists on his new line, he will become Bush III or, worse, an impotent Emperor Claudius on the shoulders of the Republican Right. It can always get even worse: the worse economic crisis since the Great Depression with Palin as President. I can see Russia from my house?
Reading you,
Alfredo M. Bravo de Rueda E.
Gaithersburg, Maryland