Letter to Staff at Rep. Bishop's MI 8th District

Dear Jessica, Stuart, and Andrew, (Good people who work for Congressman Mike Bishop, MI 8th District),First of all we want to thank you for sending a postcard today explaining the Congressman’s views on the Iran Nuclear Deal and also allowing his constituents to express their support for the Iran Nuclear Deal by using the attached post card. We very much would have liked an in person town hall meeting but at least every MI 8th District Household can “vote” on the Iran Nuclear Deal by filling it out and sending it in to Wash, DC.We are mailing our postcard tomorrow but are sending our response to the information on Congressman Mike Bishop’s postcard by e-mail to you. There isn’t any space on the postcard to do so and in the absence of a town hall meeting, no way to discuss his viewpoints and explain ours.The quote on the front “The Iranian regime has cheated its way around agreements..........” If this is Rep. Bishop’s quote, there isn’t any factual info giving the evidence. Iran isn’t the only country “sponsoring terrorists as we speak,” the U.S. calls them “freedom fighters” when we want to supply them with weapons and military aid in Syria. We believe that the U.S., the UK, France, Germany, Russia, and China have not settled for a bad deal. We trust these negotiators rather than Israel which was wrong about Iraq and continues to be obsessed with their own survival and keeps their own nuclear weapons program hidden, refusing to allow inspections. Israeli’s military has also preemptively bombed Syria’s nuclear facilities and covertly sponsored the killing of nuclear scientists in Iran, secret terrorism?On the back of the post card, “Releasing the $150 billion.....” which is Iran’s own money, we believe will be spent by their government in response to their people’s wishes, just as ours here in the U.S. so what’s the problem? We doubt that Iran will be “renewing” a terrorist campaign with this money, the U.S., Israel, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and now Turkey have been keeping the terrorist campaigns going with no sign of letting up all by themselves.As for Iran freeing Americans in their custody as a demonstration of good faith, how about the U.S. Congress, as a demonstration of their respect for the rule of law, closing down Guantanamo Bay, releasing the 60-70 prisoners being held there for over 13 years, without trial, without charges?The Iran Nuclear Deal was signed with the P-5 plus 1, not just the U.S., Congressman Bishop, your saying you “..will not support a nuclear deal with Iran unless it meets these 5 requirements:” smacks of “exceptionalism” (“American exceptionalism is the theory that the United States is inherently different from other nations.”~Wikipedia) 1)”Iran must release the Americans in their custody.” Does Iran hold prisoners from the other 5 countries? Did they demand prisoner releases?2)”Iran must be required to dismantle its nuclear capacity.” Iran has maintained since the 1950’s its desire for nuclear energy and General Electric in the 1950’s was going to supply it. Iran’s religious leader has not wavered from his declaration of being against a nuclear bomb and also is against chemical weapons. Why this fact continues to be hidden from discussion by the media and our Congress is a mystery to me. Iran refused to use chemical weapons against Iraq’s chemical weapons (supplied by the U.S.) in the 8 year war in the 1980’s. Is Israel being required to declare its 200-400 nuclear bombs, the capacity to deliver them, and to allow inspectors into its secret nuclear facilities? Did you talk to Netanyahu on your Aug 8th trip about that? Does Israel have nuclear energy, don’t we? Do we require other nuclear countries to give up their nuclear facilities, shut down their nuclear energy?3)”Anytime/anywhere inspections, including of Iran’s military facilities, must be enforced.” See above concerning Israel, and also are you demanding this of the other nuclear countries, the U.S, Russia, China, Pakistan, India, etc? Can the inspectors of the IAEA come anytime, anywhere in our country? Who is enforcing it?4)”Sanctions must only be lifted with Iran’s demonstrated compliance, not all at once.” Are you aware that “sanctions” killed over 500,000 Iraqi children in the 1990’s when the U.S. imposed them on Iraq? We would prefer that sanctions which affect the population of a country more than the military of a country, be lifted as soon as possible. We are against “collective punishment” of civilians especially when the country hasn’t attacked us. It was the Republican Administration that started collective punishment (bombing Afghanistan instead of following the money of the 15 hijackers from Saudi Arabia) and pre-emptive war against Iraq, killing over 100,000 innocent civilians and displacing millions of Iraqis, and destroying the “cradle of civilization.”5)”Iran must be prohibited from achieving nuclear weapons in the future.” This last one we find very puzzling for a number of reasons. If anything the P-5 plus one have achieved an accord which does that with verification for the future-something like 25 years, etc. Is Rep. Bishop confusing the “future” with eternity? Why aren’t the same requirements being put on other nuclear countries, ourselves and Russia and China? Don’t we have agreements with other nuclear countries that last a specific amount of time and then are renegotiated? “The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, commonly known as the Non-Proliferation Treaty or NPT, is an international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and to further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament.[1]” Wikipedia Did you ask the Netanyahu of Israel why they won’t sign this treaty? How are we verifying that Israel won’t keep making nuclear bombs and blow up Iran preemptively based on false or mistaken intelligence? After all, it preemptively bombed Syria’s nuclear facilities and we don’t know if the facilities were for peaceful use or not. The U.S. also didn’t raise the alarm about any country preemptively bombing any other, which is the real ethical question in all of this. Since when did America assume that preemptive war and collective punishment (sanctions, drones,) was moral, ethical, or in alignment with the rule of law or our American Constitution? The Iran Nuclear Deal is an International Agreement which required cooperation, compromise, trust, and respect, qualities needed to make the deal with Iran. Those qualities are needed in our U.S. Congress to support the Deal in a bi-partisan fashion demonstrating patriotism and statesmanship to the citizens of the U.S and our allies. Instead of making demands, we hoped, and still hope, Rep. Bishop, that you will be inspiring support for this deal with your Republican colleagues. We hope you will be the “exception” in the lock-step of the Republican Party against the Deal. The fact that you sent the postcard to all your constituents, gives us hope. Your staff and their respectful treatment of us also gives us hope.Sincerely,Mares and Chuck HirchertHartland, MI 48353Peace does not mean an absence of conflicts; differences will always be there. Peace means solving these differences through peaceful means; through dialogue, education, knowledge; and through humane ways.~ Dalai Lama XIV