Vote on Lieberman-Kyl Iran Amendment Tomorrow?

by: tparty

Mon Sep 24, 2007 at 15:36:13 PM EDT

Today the Senators Lieberman and Kyl presented arguments in favor of Amendment No. 3017 to the Fiscal Year 2008 Defense Authorization bill. According to John Isaacs, the Senate is expected to continue consideration of the Defense Authorization bill this week, but it will also break for other bills, including a Continuing Resolution to keep the government going after October 1 because no appropriations bill have passed. Senators Lieberman and Kyl predicted that their amendment could come up for a vote tomorrow if there are votes on the Defense Authorization bill.

The text of the amendment is available here, and the relevant language is this:

  (3) that it should be the policy of the United States to combat, contain, and roll back the violent activities and destabilizing influence inside Iraq of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, its foreign facilitators such as Lebanese Hezbollah, and its indigenous Iraqi proxies;

  (4) to support the prudent and calibrated use of all instruments of United States national power in Iraq, including diplomatic, economic, intelligence, and military instruments, in support of the policy described in paragraph (3) with respect to the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran and its proxies;

  (5) that the United States should designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as a foreign terrorist organization under section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act and place the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps on the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists, as established under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and initiated under Executive Order 13224; and

This is clearly meant to threaten and escalate matters, as was Lieberman's July amendment on Iran which passed the Senate by an astounding 97-0 margin.

Will this amendment also pass without opposition?

As chance would have it, Sen. Dodd wrote to Bush on Iran last week, saying:

I am extremely concerned that your administration's failure to employ robust diplomacy in dealing with the challenges posed by Iran could lead us down the same disastrous and ill-conceived path that has produced a failed policy in Iraq that has made us less secure. While I would never advocate taking the military option off the table as a policy option under any circumstance, I am convinced that at this time military action against Iran would be extremely dangerous and costly and would pose even more serious dangers to our interests and the interests of our friends and allies throughout the region.

Well, this amendment does absolutely nothing legislatively to curb Bush/Cheney on Iran, or to promote diplomacy. Indeed, it's passage clearly makes war with Iran that much more likely.

I don't expect Dodd to speak out on this. But it will be interesting to see how he votes.

U.S. Senator Chris Dodd:
Tel: (202) 224-2823
Tel: (860) 258-6940
(800) 334-5341 -CT only

Update: Lieberman was just on CNBC talking about this amendment and how it is necessary due to the failure of diplomacy with Iran (yes, all that diplomacy Bush has been doing) and therefore the Administration needs to consider "hitting them militarily." He's pretty clear about this. It's a precursor to military action against Iran.

Update 2: AfterDowningStreet.org links to a memo from Council for a Livable World and the Open Society Policy Center opposing the resolution:

Council for a Livable World and Open Society Policy Center Urge "No" Vote

The Council for a Livable World and Open Society Policy Center oppose the Kyl-Lieberman Amendment No. 3017 to the Fiscal Year 2008 Defense Authorization bill as a provocative measure that will only undermine efforts to resolve tensions with Iran through diplomacy.