The American dream

The nomination of Barack Obama, an African-American with highly exotic roots, as the Democratic candidate for the Presidency is the most heralded example of the realization of the American dream.

On a far less dramatic level, the American dream has also been achieved in my own family. A century ago, my two sets of grandparents immigrated to this country from Poland and Belarus, both then part of the Czarist Russian empire. They came with few resources and no knowledge of English.

They fled to escape the pogroms and religious persecution that their ancestors had endured for many hundreds of years. In America they sought and found a refuge and a tolerant environment in which their children could employ their talents and fulfill their ambitions.

During the two generations that have followed my grandparents' arrival here, the family has produced two doctors (one of whom is a medical school cardiology professor), four school teachers, two artists (one of whom was also a college professor), a dentist, an art historian, a pharmaceutical chemist, a social worker, an investment banker, a Republican politician, three wartime soldiers, an Air Force career officer, a lecturer at the former Royal Iranian air force academy, a musician, several corporate executives, and this humble journalist.

For me and my relatives, the "American dream" is a magnificent reality.

The homelands of my grandsons' forebears

My 12-year old grandson was recently taken by his school to Ellis Island as part of a lesson about immigration. The visit stimulated his interest in his forebears' countries of origin. Few of his classmates' ancestors are likely to have so many different homelands as those of my grandson and his two brothers.

Their paternal side shows the most varied ancestral background. My wife's mother was born in Lithuania. Her father was born in Ireland, the son of immigrants from Latvia. My mother was born in what is now Belarus, my father in Poland. Excluding Ireland, each of these countries was a part of the Czarist Russian empire at the time of their births, but each possessed a separate and distinct language and culture.

On my grandsons' maternal side, both grandparents were born in China, their grandmother in Nanjing and their grandfather in Beijing. After the Communist takeover, both their families fled to Taiwan, where my daughter-in-law was born.

All of my grandsons' foreign-born forebears quickly integrated into American society, contributing new cultural elements that make the U.S. the unique and powerful nation that it is.

Do we really have to "defend" Poland and the Czechs against Iran?

After the tragic fiasco of the war in Iraq, we may have another bizarre military adventure in the making. The U.S. has asked Poland and the Czech Republic to base defenses against intercontinental ballistic missiles in their countries. The request was explained as a prudent hedge against Iran. We also regard it as a demonstration that European security is linked to our own missile defense system, which is now being deployed in Alaska and California despite serious questions about its capability.

Both interceptor anti-missiles and radar are involved in the proposed project. The concept of radar to track incoming missiles presumably aimed directly at the U.S. appears logical. But a plan to deploy interceptors suggests that Washington actually believes that Iran is a legitimate threat to Poland and the Czech Republic.

That raises the question of the strategic wisdom of those who have proposed the project: either the Pentagon's military professionals or the Bush Administration's civilian national security experts. In either case, it reflects the same kind of unrealistic reasoning that led to the stupidity and incompetence displayed in the Iraq invasion and occupation.

It is inconceivable that Poland and the Czech Republic feel seriously threatened by Iran. It is laughable to think that Iran considers the two as enemy countries. They could be willing to accept the U.S. deployment on their soil, however, simply to underscore their desire to be American allies. But the two countries' parliaments have yet to approve the proposed plan.

Not surprisingly, Russia has furiously objected to still another American military deployment so close to its borders. The project is another example of the Bush Administration's inept diplomatic endeavors that have alienated so many foreign countries. In terms of relations with Russia, the Administration almost seems eager to restore the cold war. This is not to suggest that Russia, under the increasingly autocratic Putin regime, has encouraged warmer relations with the U.S.

Still, deploying missile defenses against Iran in Poland and the Czech Republic makes about as much sense as invading Iraq because of WMDs and 9/11 and turning the country into a major terrorist breeding ground.