Yesterday, as the Senate overwhelmingly voted for the Lieberman-Kyl Amendment on Iran, I couldn’t stop my amazement at the absolute arrogance of the US federal government.
The amendment states: “The United State should designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as a foreign terrorist organization . . . and place the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps on the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists.”
Looks like this “non-binding” resolution is a wide-open door for war. Think the administration is going to pass up a chance to name part of the Iranian military as a terrorist group? Think again. I can’t imagine it not happening.
So what happens after that? It seems pretty obvious in the age of the “war on terror” doesn’t it? I, like many others, can’t help but expect this to end up in yet another, undeclared, unconstitutional war. (see overviews of war powers and the constitution here, here and here)
The Democratic Senate, although claiming to be the opposition, is working hand in hand with those insane neo-cons who are telling us that a military strike on Iran (and thus, the killing of countless innocents) will “improve” the political situation in the Middle East.
But, as usual, all the debate in D.C about Iran has been a distraction. They talk about weapons and troops and nukes and everything else, but they never focus on what’s important.
No one seems to have answered – or even asked – the obvious questions. Here’s a few:
- Why is it that the US military is allowed to have a presence in Iraq, and Iran cannot?
- Why is it that the US can ship hundreds of billions of dollars of weapons to Iraq, and Iran cannot?
- Why is it that the United States can have a nuclear arsenal far larger than that of every other country in the world combined, but that Iran can’t have even a single nuclear bomb?
Well, that’s the goal of this government – to avoid the real issues.