The Senate is scheduled to vote as early as today on an amendment that, if passed, would dangerously escalate the U.S. conflict with Iran, adding to the escalation by the Bush Administration in recent weeks. Again recently U.S. forces have arrested Iranian officials in Iraq even though these officials were in Iraq at the invitation of the supposedly sovereign Iraqi government. As Katrina vanden Heuvel noted yesterday for The Nation, Americans overwhelmingly oppose the use of military force against Iran. But by voting for this amendment, the Senate could move us closer to another disastrous war.
The Kyl-Lieberman amendment would put the Senate on the record supporting the "use of all instruments of United States national power in Iraq," including military force, to "combat, contain, and roll back" Iran's influence in Iraq. Such provocative language would be construed as support for war with Iran. It would also be construed as support for provocative actions that could act as a trigger for war.
By approving this dangerous amendment, the Senate would also be endorsing the aggressive step of designating part of Iran's military a "terrorist organization." The Washington Post reported in January that skeptics in the intelligence community, State Department and Defense Department worry this step "could push the growing conflict between Tehran and Washington into the center of a chaotic Iraq war." The text of the Kyl-Lieberman amendment is here:
The Bush administration and its allies have kept up a steady drumbeat of unproven allegations that Iran is arming insurgents in Iraq. The sponsors of this amendment recite those allegations as if they were fact, ignoring the fact that they haven't been substantiated, in order to establish them as "true by repetition." But by stating that the goal is to combat Iran's "influence" in Iraq, the sponsors of this amendment show what it's really all about. Lieberman, like Bush, wants to put American lives at risk for the goal of constraining Iranian political influence in Iraq, a goal in which the overwhelming majority of Americans have no stake, certainly not a stake worth a single American life.
Instead of military confrontation, we need real diplomacy with Iran - where the United States is prepared to make concessions in return for Iranian concessions, not the fake diplomacy we've seen so far where you have a meeting in which you just pound the table so that later you can say that diplomacy didn't work.
Call (202-224-3121) or write your Senators to ask them to oppose the Kyl-Lieberman amendment on Iran.
Someone please get these madmen out of our WH.
Too bad we're now all citizens of a rogue corporate fascist state that threatens the peace of the entire world. It's hard to drive around aimlessly and buy big cheap bags of crap at the malls with stuff like this on our minds, but we're Americans, so we'll just suck it up and deal with it. Maybe a huge high fat meal with a giant soft drink will make us feel better. Always worked before...
Did Lieberman demand up or down on this as a pre condition of delivering an occasional nod to the left? And, yeah, Dems going for this craziness need primary challenges.
You know, time for the diplomatic surge that everyone says has been missing in action. Time to support the bipartisan and binding Biden et al. amendment...the really important vote today.
I asked them to REIN IN JOE LIEBERMAN.
He does NOT represent his constituency.
He is an agent of a foreign country.
He is a traitor.
There. One task done.
ONWARD!
ElBaradei will present his UN report in Nov/Dec
Spiegel 9/03/07:'We Are Moving Rapidly Towards an Abyss' - IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei.
SPIEGEL: Mr. ElBaradei, the international community suspects that Iran aims to build nuclear weapons. Tehran denies this. Have we now reached the decisive phase in which we will finally get an answer to this central question of world politics?
Mohamed ElBaradei: Yes. The next few months will be crucial for the overall situation in the Middle East. Whether we move in the direction of escalation or in the direction of a peaceful solution.
SPIEGEL: You have been given a central role. The new report on Iran by your International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) could lead to more severe sanctions against Tehran.
ElBaradei: The international community will have to make that decision. We can only deliver the facts and our assessment of the situation. There are hopeful and positive signs. For the first time, we have agreed, with the Iranians, to a sort of roadmap, a schedule, if you will, for clarifying the outstanding issues. We should know by November, or December at the latest, whether the Iranians will keep their promises. If they don't, Tehran will have missed a great opportunity -- possibly the last one.
FROM THE MAGAZINE
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SPIEGEL: The US government has described Iran's new willingness to cooperate as a transparent attempt to distract from its true intentions and from its continued development of the capabilities to produce a nuclear weapon. Is the IAEA too gullible?
ElBaradei: I am familiar with these accusations. They are completely untrue. It's not possible to manipulate us. We are not naïve and we do not take sides. Our new Iran report also shows that the Iranian government is not adhering to the requirements set forth by the UN, which demanded an immediate stop to uranium enrichment.
Because for Holy Joe, it's not about anything other than going to war. Having a valid case for it is, at worst, an annoyance.
"As the saying goes, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.". The time to oppose those who want war with Iran is now. We're going to dealing with the fallout from the President's fiasco in Iraq for decades and generations to come. We don't need to compound the damage done to our once great nation by electing to start another irresponsible war."
Then I forwarded the link to a list of like-minded friends.
The other thing that needs to be done is to make sure all the Dem Senators that vote for right-wing crap like this, Iraq funding w/o restrictions, B.S. MoveOn reprimands, continued suspension of habeus corpus, etc., know they are going to be facing a primary fight next time they are up for election.
Lastly, HEY CT, could you PUH-LEASE recall LIEberman?!? The guy is a menace.