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Enough Fear
A standoff between presidents
In 2006, with Presidents Bush and Ahmadinejad making more and more provocative statements about Iran's nuclear program, we decided that we needed an alternative diplomatic system to strengthen the ties between Iranians and Americans and prevent war. We began by talking with Iranian bloggers about a campaign that would allow Americans and Iranians to speak out against war together.
The Enough Fear campaign was launched to create a home for those voices – a website that collected photos of people in both countries telling their leaders to stop and negotiate a peaceful resolution to the crisis.
Direct citizen diplomacy
Building on this campaign, we designed a platform to allow direct communication between average Americans and Iranians. Beyond geographic distance, communication between our two countries has been severely limited since the 1979 revolution, and we felt that in order to create a useful dialogue, citizens would have to step where our governments had failed to act.
In 2007, the Enough Fear campaign began holding a series of events in public spaces in the US where people are invited to use iconic, old-fashioned red phones to talk directly to volunteers in Iran.
These conversations have included high school students, engineers, musicians and five members of the US congress. Participants can choose to talk about any topic they like and are encouraged to trade contact information for longer conversations. While limited in number, these conversations have recieved extensive media coverage in both the US and Iran, and was the subject of a New Yorker article, multiplying their effect.
Our DC event, a collaboration with the Campaign for a New American Policy on Iran, included film crews from LinkTV at both ends of the conversation. You can view a short documentary here. Phone calls have been made from public spaces in Boston, New York City, Washington DC, Seattle, and Ithaca, NY, with more planned in the coming months.
Building bigger bridges
To broaden the impact of the Enough Fear campaign, we are developing several online tools that will facilitate connections between Americans and Iranians. These tools will allow a much larger number of people in both countries to participate in this campaign.
For more information on this campaign go to EnoughFear.org.
What are people saying about the Enough Fear events?
"Instead of talking about war, the U.S. government should talk to Iran. At the same time, Congress must reassert its constitutional authority and not give the president another blank check to wage another costly war,” says Bob Barr, former Republican Congressman from Georgia and the Libertarian Party’s 2009 Presidential nominee.
“Right now, the most important thing is that the U.S. does not militarily attack Iran or even threaten to attack Iran,” says Shirin Ebadi, 2003 Nobel Peace Laureate and Iranian human rights lawyer. “A military attack will only bring further chaos to the region and worsen the situation for human rights and democracy in Iran. As the Campaign for a New American Policy on Iran is advocating through this event, the best way to resolve the situation is through direct dialogue at three levels – civil society, parliaments and heads of government.”
“It is long past time to recognize that the administration's policy toward Iran is counterproductive in that it provides incentives for continuation of its uranium enrichment program and assistance to militia factions in Iraq,” says Lt. General Robert Gard (Ret.), Senior Military Fellow at the Center for Arms Control and Nonproliferation.
"An attack by the United States on Iran would be a catastrophe for both countries and would have a devastating effect on the entire Middle East region. Bombing nuclear sites would only delay, not eliminate, Iran's nuclear program and would virtually guarantee accelerated efforts to build a weapon for self-defense. Iran would certainly retaliate, closing the Straits of Hormuz and leading to a surge in oil prices. It would unleash a wave of attacks against US forces in neighboring Iraq and would exploit its relationship with Hezbollah to stage terrorist attacks against Israel and also possibly within the United States. It could destabilize neighboring Afghanistan. US response to Iranian resistance would likely result in huge civilian casualty levels,” says Phil Giraldi, a former CIA Counter-terrorism specialist who currently is a contributing editor for The American Conservative magazine and a columnist for Antiwar.com. He continues, “In spite of the bellicose rhetoric coming mostly from Washington, the American people do not want another war, nor has the White House yet made a case that Iran poses a genuine threat against the United States. The Bush Administration has refused to negotiate outstanding issues unless Iran, as a precondition, surrenders on many key points, a tactic designed to guarantee that no talks will take place. The danger that a new war in the Middle East will begin either by accident or by design is growing. It is time to begin serious negotiations, before it is too late."
“The spiraling crisis between Iran and the United States can only be eased through dialogue. Angry demands and threats of military attack dangerously increase tension in a volatile region. The path of direct negotiations without pre-conditions between the US and Iran is so low-cost that it seems folly not to try,” says Stephen Kinzer, award-winning foreign correspondent and author of All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror.
“This is precisely the kind of creative citizen diplomacy we need in a time where tensions are running high,” says Jody Williams, 1997 Nobel Peace Laureate. “We must send a message to the leaders of both countries that we do not want to see another disastrous war in the Middle East that will result in more suffering among women and children. Military action is not the answer and we demand a negotiated resolution to the standoff.”
