Sen. Graham was on the floor this morning talking up the Iran amendment. It still might come up for a vote today. Unlike the situation in July, when the language was pushed through with Levin's help at the last minute, at least we've gotten a few dozen hours of a heads-up on this.
It's clear where this resolution is going. The Council for a Livable World, one of the more astute peace groups in Washington, says it "could wind up being another in a long line of blank checks provided to the Executive Branch in the mold of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and the authorization to use force in Iraq." The line advocating the "prudent and calibrated" use of US power is "a loophole is big enough to drive an aircraft carrier or a fleet of planes through."
The Lieberman-Kyl Amendment asserts "[i]t is increasingly apparent to both coalition and Iraqi leaders that Iran, through the use of the Iranian Republican Guard Corps Qods Force, seeks to turn the Shi'a militia extremists into a Hezbollah-like force to serve its interests and fight a proxy war against the Iraqi state and coalition forces in Iraq''.
In fact, the Iraqi state is dominated by a political party (SIIC formerly SCIRI) that was founded by Khomeini in Tehran in 1982.... It was the Bush Administration that installed Iran's best friends as the Government of Iraq and it is wrong to use our mistake a pretext for an open ended declaration of hostility to Iran.
Reading through the Kyl-Lieberman amendment (hat tip Laura Rozen), you'd think that the Ryan-Crocker dog and pony show was designed to justify war on Iran. And you might be right. The amendment cites four Petraeus statements about Iranian influence in Iraq and four Crocker statements. And intersperses those with cherry-picked citations to create the illusion that Iran is the only outside force causing trouble in Ira[q]....
Voila! Carte blanche to extend the war to Iran and Lebanon!!
U.S. Senator Chris Dodd:
Tel: (202) 224-2823
Tel: (860) 258-6940
(800) 334-5341 -CT only
Update: TPM TV today looks at the Lieberman amendment and how "the supporters of going to war against Iran are using exactly same strategy with this amendment that they did to lay the ground work for the Iraq War":
On the Senate floor today, Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) made an impassioned appeal to his fellow senators, declaring that the Lieberman-Kyl amendment on Iran should be "withdrawn" because the "proposal is Dick Cheney's fondest pipe dream." Webb cautioned that the "cleverly-worded sense of the Congress" could be "interpreted" to "declare war" on Iran....
He also slammed the lack of debate and examination that was accompanying the amendment, saying "this is not the way to make foreign policy":
"We haven't had one hearing on this. I'm on the Foreign Relations Committee, I'm on the Armed Services Committee. We are about to vote on something that may fundamentally change the way the United States views the Iranian military and we haven't had one hearing. This is not the way to make foreign policy. It's not the way to declare war."
Webb also stated with deep concern:
"We as a government have never identified an organization that is a part of a nation-state as a terrorist organization.... by categorizing this organization as a terrorist organization, this isn't our present policy of keeping the military option on the table, it is for all practical purposes mandating the military option..."
Update 3: The amendment is being "modified", according to Reid this afternoon. Word is a vote could come as early as 5:30pm today. Looks like it's either going to be later tonight or tomorrow.
"We need to turn down the fiery rhetoric and turn up the smart pressure. The current legislation proposed in Congress, including the Lieberman-Kyl Amendment, moves the U.S. further away from stabilizing the Middle East and finding a diplomatic solution to the region's problems. Such legislation also cracks the door for the Bush administration to take military action against Iran, something no one wants."
Update 5: ThinkProgress has been on top of this all day. Reid apparently now says negotiations on the language are continuing, that "there will be no votes tonight," and that it "will not have a vote in the near future."
Dick Durbin also spoke out forcefully against the Lieberman-Kyl amendment, saying "I think it is dangerous language," and pledging not to vote for the amendment as it currently exists.
Carah Ong has posted the slightly changed text of the "revised" Amendment as it was being circulated this afternoon (PDF):
One of the original concerns with the amendment was that it could be construed as an authorization for the use U.S. military force against Iran. The new language allows for the use of U.S. military instruments inside of Iraq for dealing with Iran, but it still does not contain a measure to prevent a conflict from spilling beyond Iraq's borders.
Of note, paragraph 5 - urging the State Department to designate a unit of the Iranian military as a "terrorist organization" - remains unchanged.
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