Offensive
There is much food for thought in Michael Moffett’s letter regarding the bombing of Iran. However, I found his references to Barack Obama and Valerie Jarrett offensive. He asserted that the Obama administration, “like those of Bush and Biden, was constantly ‘played’ by the Iranians,” accusing them of “flattery and bribery.” He objects to Obama’s “repeatedly” referring to Ali Khamenei as the Supreme Leader, his implication being that Obama was showing him excessive deference in order to flatter — when in fact Supreme Leader was the Iranian head of state’s official title, as President is ours. Moffett also noted that Obama sent $400 million in cash to Iran in 2016, implying bribery. This was actually Iran’s money, a partial return of frozen assets as part of a settlement included in an international agreement to curb Iran’s nuclear weapons program (and we all know what happened to that). The timing was in part used as leverage for the successful release of four American prisoners.
Then Moffett states, without further comment, that “Obama’s senior advisor, Valerie Jarrett, was born in Iran.” What are you trying to say, Mr. Moffett? For your information, Valerie Jarrett was indeed born in Iran — to American parents. Her father, a pathologist and geneticist, was working as chair of pathology at a hospital in Shiraz. When Valerie was five, the family moved to London and then to Chicago. I don’t appreciate your sly insinuation that by virtue of her place of birth she somehow inappropriately represented Iran’s interests within the Obama administration.
Rep. Moffett raises a number of legitimately debatable points about the situation in the Middle East, but his snark about Obama is inappropriate, unprofessional and reminiscent of McCarthyism.