Not At Our Photo Op!

The President of Iran wanted to lay a wreath at the sight of the Twin Towers terrorists attacks on 9/11, affectionally referred to as “ground zero”. The Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is scheduled to address the UN General Assembly and wanted to express the condolences of the Iranian people. It appears that the sympathy of the Iranian people is not welcome here in America. We wonder why we are losing the hearts and minds of the Arab peoples of the world when we do things like this. This is an affront to Muslims everywhere and will be used for political gain by those who advocate more radical positions against America.

NEW YORK -- A request by Iran's president to lay a wreath at the World Trade Center site next week has been turned down by police and blasted by U.S. diplomats as an attempt to turn ground zero into a "photo op."[1]

Regardless of the political climate with Iran, to disrespect their people in this way is a slap in the face. To not accept the tribute of the Iranian people for the attacks, which they had nothing to do with is again grouping all Muslims together as being guilty for the attack, which many in this country continue to insist on doing.

I am not a big fan of the Iranian President, but in this capacity he is representing the people of Iran, who should be allowed to acknowledge their respect for the victims of the attack. How can we cultivate closer relations with the Arab world if we continue to treat them with disdain? It seems that the only Muslim countries we are interested in cultivating relationships with are the ones willing to do our bidding. Continuing to demonize and label those who disagree with us maybe good for internal consumption, but in the world community that strategy has not played well. There are many in the world who see us as the biggest threat to peace and not those we have labeled as such, so somewhere there has been a disconnect between what we are saying and what the world is believing.

If I remember correctly Iran was one of the Muslim countries that rallied behind the US after 9/11 and condemned the attacks, but obviously this administration still suffers from the same short-sightedness that led us to attack Iraq and lay the groundwork for attacking Iran.

The rationale for the denial of the request is that the Bush Administration did not want to allow Mr. Ahmadinejad an opportunity to have photos taken at the scene of the attacks. Here is the part that kills me, we don’t want to allow him the opportunity to exploit the victims, but yet we have allowed every American politician with a pulse to exploit them. There is a quote in the Bible the reads:

To the pure all things are pure,
But to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure
But even there mid and conscience are defiled.[2]

I quote this verse to say that if one’s motives are wrong, then they assume everyone’s motives are wrong. If I am a thief then I think that all people are thieves and act accordingly. If the Iranian President is looking to exploit this tragedy then that will be revealed and he will be treated accordingly, but to make that assumption, especially by the same people who arranged photo ops in Iraq, Ground Zero, and aboard an aircraft carrier is pathetic.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad, told reporters Wednesday that the United States would not support Iran's attempt to use the site for a "photo op."[3]

So, let’s keep the site of the attack clear of foreigners so that it can remain pristine for our pandering politician’s photo ops. Warning to the rest of the world’s politicians, we can use your countries memorials for photo ops, but don’t even think about trying that here.

[1] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/20/AR2007092000207.html
[2] Titus 1:15
[3] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/20/AR2007092000207.html