Ineffective Congress

Members of Congress are concerned that, given the Bush regime’s track record leading up to the Iraq war, our imperial commander-in-chief will authorize an attack against Iran. The Democratic leadership of the House prepared a legislative provision to require Bush to seek congressional authorization before launching an attack against Iran. They attached that provision to the draft of the Iraq war supplemental spending bill, which would require Bush to follow the Constitution and make a full, public explanation of the need for war and gain congressional approval before launching a war against Iran.

The Blue Dog Coalition forced Nancy Pelosi to take that provision out of the bill. Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand has publicly associate herself with this conservative coalition. They profess to want to make a difference in Congress by finding bipartisan answers to the current challenges facing the country. Allegedly, their top priority is focused on balancing the budget and ridding taxpayers of the burden the national debt places on them. Presently, the greatest drain on our national treasury, by far is the war in Iraq. Blue Dog Democrats don’t appear to be taking an effective public stand on the issue of getting our troops out of Iraq, which is costing 8.4 billion a month.

Henry Kissinger, Republican Senator Chuck Hagel and the bipartisan Iraq Study Group have all argued that we need to talk to Iran, not rush to war. The Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, U.S. intelligence officers, and the head of the International Atomic Energy Commission all agree that Iran is not on the verge of building nuclear weapons.

The Bush regime has threatened military action against Iran since they came to power. They argue that Iran cannot be allowed to develop nuclear weapons and that military action may be necessary to bring a halt to Iran’s nuclear program. Iran insists its nuclear program is focused only on building a domestic capacity to generate electricity, a right guaranteed under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

In early March, even as our diplomats were meeting in Iraq, with Iranian officials, a second U.S. aircraft carrier arrived in the region, and squadrons of F-18 fighters began "training operations" within striking distance of Iran. These mounting tensions bear an unsettling resemblance to the build-up to prior the invasion of Iraq.