No Crusade

To the Editors of The Crimson:

That the U.S. does not recognize the legitimacy of the Iranians' demands that the Shah be tried in his country is as violent an act on their national sovereignty as it is a violence to the sovereignty of the U.S. to have its citizens held as hostages. A magazine has recently reported that ten thousand persons are estimated to have been killed during the Shah's regime, but that a World Court would probably not consider the issue since it is not an extraordinary number of victims in Third World countries! Such perverse logic reflects the bankruptcy of a World Court to deal effectively, honestly, and realistically with serious grievances. In light of this it becomes evident why the Iranians had to transgress diplomatic principles in order to proclaim their sovereign rights. They could have initiated procedures for a hearing, but the prospect of unravelling a long, legal red tape simply did not correspond to their fervent need to administer justice. And to dismiss the Iranians' protests as fanatical is to grossly distort the historical conditions which have precipitated them.

In the meantime the U.S. is portraying a grotesque caricature of human rights and political exile by extending extraordinary assistance to a person who is associated with serious crimes against humanity. Its responses to the embassy seizure are baffling: thousands of students are being hasselled, a number of them are being deported, and there are threats of military intervention and of cut-offs of food supplies.

It is probable that the U.S. citizens will be tried. Those who are judged not guilty will undoubtedly be permitted to leave, but it would be unrealistic to expect the release of the others if the U.S. does not respond positively to the Iranians' grievances.

The issue must not be made a crusade; however, there are ominous portents. The 'uniqueness' of the Christian and the Islamic revelations is a paradigm for conflict. The archetypal struggle between the forces of good and evil unfolds in the eschatological messianism of both traditions. In the present situation, the mixture of oil and archetypal consciousness is so inflammatory that it must be handled with utmost caution. George Thierry de Dreyer