Letter to the Editor: Hypocrisy should be avoided when addressing terrorism

Dear editor,

Your April 30 article reported that former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, in a campus lecture, criticized the United Nations for failing to “urgently confront terrorism after the Pan Am 103 bombing.” Indeed, the Dec. 21,1988 murder of 270 civilians was terrible and inexcusable. However, Bolton likely neglected to mention that on July 3, 1988, the USS Vincennes shot down Iran Air Flight 655 over the Strait of Hormuz, killing all 290 people on board, including 66 children. Iran’s foreign minister, Ali Akbar Velayati, denounced the attack as a “criminal act” and an “atrocity,” while the ship commander was decorated for his “meritorious” conduct and Vice President George H. W. Bush said he would “never apologize for the United States.”

In the case of Flight 655, the United Nations did confront terrorism, and unanimously adopted U.N. Security Council Resolution 616 on July 20, 1988, expressing “deep distress” and “sincere condolences,” as well as establishing a “fact-finding investigation.” Therefore, the U.S. should live up to its own laws and international law, the latter of which Bolton seems to have little respect for.

In fact, his latest call to “bomb Iran” to pre-empt its nuclear capability is a depraved proposal to harm Iranian civilians who have already suffered from decades of militarism and sanctions from the U.S. In addition, it ignores the disturbing fact that President Barack Obama recently declared a roughly $1 trillion, 30-year upgrade of the U.S.’s nuclear arsenal. The rest of us should approach past and current affairs with both honesty and decency.

Respectfully,

Travis Meyers

Doctoral student in epidemiology