Illiteracy in the Middle East
Your article titled "In Afghanistan, it Takes a Soap Opera to Build Villages" [June 18] stated that 80 percent of the population there is illiterate. And the United States is trying to instill democracy in this backward nation? This is the reason we are having such a hard time in the Arab world. Democracy offers too many options for the uninformed to handle effectively. We must start from the bottom up educating the masses of the Arab world. Then they will have the capabilities of self-government.
ED ROBERTS
Coarsegold, Calif.
Iran and Statecraft
"The Fine Art of Statecraft" [June 18] by former Mideast negotiator Ambassador Dennis Ross neglected to mention that statecraft is also about respecting the international regimes and rights of other nations. Iran has a peaceful nuclear program within the framework of the Non-Proliferation Treaty and the full scope of safeguard and verification standards of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which has repeatedly confirmed the absence of any military diversion after extensive inspections. Ross's prescribed path of fast-track sanctions is, in fact, a slow motion to disaster, by escalating the tensions without any chance of forcing the proud Iranian people to forfeit their "inalienable rights." The threat of military action against Iran endorsed by Ross is tantamount to a blatant act of unprovoked aggression contrary to the fundamental principles of relations among nations.
M. A. MOHAMMADI
Press Counselor
Mission of Iran to the United Nations
New York
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