White House and Congress - A Very Dangerous Escalation of Iran Situation

Seymour Hersh continues his investigative reporting of U.S. actions against, and now in Iran.

Crooks and Liars has an interview with him from CNN, in which he states:

...The end game is, as far as -- and I do have some access into some of the thinking, particularly in the vice president's office. They do not want -- Bush and Cheney do not want to leave Iran in place with a nuclear program, with, they believe, a nuclear weapons program. They simply don't believe the national intelligence estimate that came out late last year that said they haven't done anything in nuclear weapons since '03. They just don't believe it.

So they believe that their mission is to make sure that, before they get out of office next year, either Iran is attacked or it stops its weapons program.

Forget what the intelligence has told us about the state of Iran's nuclear program. Forget how wrong the Bush administration were about WMDs in Iraq. Forget the mess we're in now in Iraq and the fact the military is stretched so thin. Forget all that. These guys in the White House live in their own world, make up their own rules. Be damned everything and everyone else.

Meanwhile, our congressional representatives are just handing over all the rope we need to collectively hang ourselves. In late May, a resolution (H.Con.Res.362) was introduced and referred to the House Committee of Foreign Affairs that escalates the situation further. The resolution's title: "Expressing the sense of Congress regarding the threat posed to international peace, stability in the Middle East, and the vital national security interests of the United States by Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons and regional hegemony, and for other purposes." A Senate version, S.Res.580 was introduced in early June.

Here is what the text states:

Now, therefore, be it resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That Congress--

(1) declares that preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapons capability, through all appropriate economic, political, and diplomatic means, is vital to the national security interests of the United States and must be dealt with urgently;

(2) urges the President, in the strongest of terms, to immediately use his existing authority to impose sanctions on--

(A) the Central Bank of Iran and any other Iranian bank engaged in proliferation activities or the support of terrorist groups;

(B) international banks which continue to conduct financial transactions with proscribed Iranian banks;

(C) energy companies that have invested $20,000,000 or more in the Iranian petroleum or natural gas sector in any given year since the enactment of the Iran Sanctions Act of 1996; and

(D) all companies which continue to do business with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps;

(3) demands that the President initiate an international effort to immediately and dramatically increase the economic, political, and diplomatic pressure on Iran to verifiably suspend its nuclear enrichment activities by, inter alia, prohibiting the export to Iran of all refined petroleum products; imposing stringent inspection requirements on all persons, vehicles, ships, planes, trains, and cargo entering or departing Iran; and prohibiting the international movement of all Iranian officials not involved in negotiating the suspension of Iran's nuclear program; and

(4) urges the President to lead a sustained, serious, and forceful effort at regional diplomacy to support the legitimate governments in the region against Iranian efforts to destabilize them, to reassure our friends and allies that the United States supports them in their resistance to Iranian efforts at hegemony, and to make clear to the Government of Iran that the United States will protect America's vital national security interests in the Middle East.

While the resolution stipulates that "nothing in this resolution shall be construed as an authorization of the use of force against Iran", what would in effect be a blockade would be exactly that if not endorsed by the U.N. Security Council. The Seattle P.I. editorialized about this very fact a week ago.

Republican congressman Dave Reichert has joined Democrats Norm Dicks and Adam Smith as co-sponsors of the resolution, that has 83 Republican co-sponsors and 64 Democratic co-sponsors in the House. 12 Republicans and 8 Democrats are co-sponsoring the Senate version, including Senators Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray.

Is this the road we are heading down? Is this what Americans want their government to be doing, calling for embargoes and blockades and provoking a war? Have we not learned anything from the Iraq invasion? Will our arrogance never end?

If we keep silent we will have given our tacit approval. Contact your Representatives and Senators and tell them that they're heading down a very slippery slope that will lead to no good and possibly to a war we want no part of.