Fighting the Good Fight: Stephen Kinzer for Peace

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Award-winning author and former New York Times correspondent Stephen Kinzer wrapped up his national speaking tour with public appearances in Baltimore, Washington, DC and Alexandria, VA. Joined by other specialists—including Iran scholar Trita Parsi and the New America Foundation's Steve Clemons—Kinzer warned against U.S. military intervention in Iran and outline the advantages of cooperation between the two countries. The tour also promoted the Iran Diplomatic Accountability Act of 2008 in the U.S. House of Representatives (HR 5056).

In Baltimore, the event was held on Thurs., March 5 at 7 PM at Shriver Hall on the Homewood campus of Johns Hopkins University. Local sponsors of the program included Baltimore Veterans for Peace, Americans for Informed Democracy, the Inter-Asian Council of Johns Hopkins University, and the Iranian Cultural Society at The Johns Hopkins University.

The event itself was one of intimacy where all the panelists spoke to an attentive crowd eager to hear what each panelist had to say.  Mr. Kinzer laid out the history of Iranian and United States relations while touching upon a lot of the sensitive issues that surround Iranians and the concept of democracy.  He spoke of the CIA backed coup and the bitter taste that was left in Iranians mouths since then.  Dr. Trita Parsi, the Executive Director of the National Iranian American Council, discussed a series of foreign policy alternatives while Dr. Stephen Clemons continued to represent the wonderful political agenda of think tank bloggers who are merely looking to increase their readership.  The event itself was an extremely informative one, but one would never be able to tell due to the lack of enthusiasm by the panelists.  This reporter wonders if that was due to the tour coming to an end or merely the attitude of complacency surrounding this and many other foreign policy issues.

Kinzer has served as a New York Times foreign correspondent and bureau chief for 20 years, covering more than 50 countries on five continents. He has written several books on U.S. policy in the Middle East and Latin America. The Washington Post has called him "among the best in popular foreign policy storytelling." His 2003 book about the legacy of the U.S.-sponsored coup against Iran's democratic government in 1953, "All The Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror," was just reissued by Wiley & Sons with a new foreword: "The Folly of Attacking Iran.

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