Experience Calls For Action

To the Editors:

It tears at my very core to hear that there was a protest on the Oberlin campus against Allied military involvement in the Middle East (and presumably the rest of the world). Being an alumnus of Oberlin College, I understand and sympathize with the pacifist ideal which was at the core of this rally. However, I cannot think of a more inappropriate course of action for the Oberlin community to take part in. I came to the United States of America at the tender age of five, leaving behind a homeland that I will most likely never know again. In 1983, when I was four and my brother just ten, my parents sold their land and belongings, and said farewell to much of their family, in many cases for good, in order to SMUGGLE themselves and their children out of the closed borders of Iran, to Italy and eventually the United States. They did this so that my brother and I might escape the certain forced social, mental and religious indoctrination that we would have been submitted to at the hands of Iran’s newly founded fundamentalist government. We left behind family members, some of whom because of their political beliefs were arrested, imprisoned and tortured so badly that, to this day, they fear contact with us. Even as I write this, I realize that it is likely that I will never see my native land, or many of my relatives. If it was this bad in Iran, how bad is it in Afghanistan, where the fundamentalist regime is far more brutal and invasive? Terror does not recognize nationality, race, gender, ethnicity or sexual orientation. Terror does not have a specific enemy, it attacks blindy in every direction. Terror is the worst weapon of war because it destroys the heart, and crumbles the spirit, leaving behind people who live, but are not alive.
The individuals who run these fundamentalist institutions are, in my mind, without a doubt currently linked with global terrorist efforts. Their tactics of terror do not just touch Americans, but the people of the Middle East as well. I know this from EXPERIENCE. To protest military actions, with the goal of this protest being the curbing of military actions against these inhuman terrorist “governments,” and the blood-mongers who run them, is to support the rape of liberty and human rights throughout the world.
The cause of peace is not always achieved through pacifism. At times, serious actions must be taken to ensure basic human rights. As was the case in WWII, and must be the case in this new war against terrorism, human lives will be sacrificed to ensure the freedom and peace of future generations. And should my government call me to sacrifice my life for this cause, I will gladly give it.
I hope my words have at least presented a clear expression of why it is that so many people around the world support this new war, and why I am so deeply hurt by the blind pacifism that called the Oberlin community to protest against this war. I hope too that I have been able to present an aspect of this war that might not have been obvious to some, or even many, and in doing so provide a service to the Oberlin community. I thank you for your time.

–Paul Madavi
OC ’01