By Justin Roberts
Opinions Editor, ‘10

Dave Robinson, the executive director of Pax Christi USA, approached the podium before an expectant audience.  It would be hard to find a more controversial thesis than his, that racism has been the dominant factor in the U.S.’s relations with Iran.  Unfortunately Mr. Robinson’s contribution to the Political Science Conference on Race in the United States, held by the Political Science Department on Thursday, March 26 in Pope Lecture Hall, failed to impress.
Mr. Robinson’s lecture was unfocussed, alternating between clumsy emotional appeals and misdirection.  While his position is solidly based in fact and he is clearly an expert in his field, his omission of key facts condemns his position to irrelevance.
Robinson began his lecture with a recitation of historical Western-Iranian relations, devoting most of his attention to the British drilling and refining of Iranian oil early in the 20th century and the American orchestrated ousting of Iranian Prime Minister Mossadeq from office in 1953.  He then described the United States’ process of dehumanization of the Iranian populace since the 1979 Iranian Hostage Crisis.
He rightly argued that Western-Iranian relations began with Western economic exploitation of the Iranians, followed by a period of pseudo-colonial intervention in Iranian politics to maintain the flow of oil.
Since the ’79 Revolution that brought the theocratic government of Ayatollah Khomeini into power, Robinson said, the United States had demonized the Iranian population, a measure historically taken in preparation for war.
All of this is true.
Unfortunately for Mr. Robinson, the Iranian history of aggression and repression, representative of prominent strains of thought among the country’s elite, is of legitimate concern to the United States government.
Mr. Robinson,
The seizure of the United States’ embassy and 52 American hostages for 444 days cannot be explained as a legitimate response to the U.S.’s refusal to extradite the Shah for a criminal trial.
Iran’s ability to make the enriched nuclear fuel necessary for the construction of nuclear weapons with civilian refining facilities is not an “assumption” made by American policymakers, but a distinct possibility.
Iran’s development of technology capable of lifting a satellite into space and carrying a warhead tipped ballistic missile to Israel is similarly not imaginary.
Sponsoring the terrorist organization Hezbollah, which has twice attacked United States servicemen and civilians is an act of hostility.
Muhammad Khatami, the “reformist” President who clandestinely developed Iran nuclear program until 2003, is not an example of what other world leaders should aspire to.
Finally, the normalization of relations between the United States and Iran alone will not disabuse Iran of its repressive policies towards women and homosexuals nor of its belligerence against Israel and the West.
Of course, the normalization of relations with Iran is vital for the development of effective foreign policy for the United States.  Dialogue is crucial to creating peace, preventing conflict and building ties to the region.  A more accurate and human depiction of the Iranian people will also help dispel bigotry and ignorance from the minds of policymakers.
But anyone familiar with the Iranian situation knew all that before Mr. Robinson’s presentation.  Anyone unfamiliar with the subject, though, walked away with a distorted perspective, mistakenly thinking that all America has to do to avoid a conflict with its misunderstood friends is give them a little peace, love and understanding.
In the end, like his sugary 7 minute slideshow, Mr. Robinson’s presentation was too biased, too long and too irrelevant to have any meaningful impact.