Stop War Against Iran Update

Stop War Against Iran - Post #3

February 10, 2007

By Joe Miller

Recognizing the similarity between the deceptive tactics used by Bush, Cheney and the neocons in the run-up and promotion of war in Iraq, and the similar tactics that are currently being used (see below) in the run-up and promotion of war against Iran, many are urging Congress to pass legally binding restrictions on Bush's ability to attack Iran without Congressional authorization.

There is no doubt that Congress has such authority. More specifically, five constitutional experts unanimously affirmed at a recent Senate hearing that Congress can prohibit the president from going to war against Iran without prior Congressional approval. Links and commentary about the experts' statements are contained in an excellent February 9 article (1) by John Dean.

One way that Congress could restrict Bush's ability to attack Iran would be to pass something like the Boland Amendment, writes Phyllis Bennis (2) on February 7. In 1982, observes Bennis, "angered by a White House secretly escalating an unpopular war in Central America, the House passed the Boland Amendment, a rider to the Defense Appropriations Act of 1983. The amendment was crafted by Massachusetts Congressman Edward Boland, and was designed to cut off funds the CIA and other intelligence agencies were using to carry out sabotage attacks in Nicaragua and to support the anti-government Contra guerrillas."

Bennis further notes that "both former war supporter Republican Congressman Walter Jones and the courageous California Congresswoman Barbara Lee have introduced different bills that take some steps towards prohibiting a U.S. attack on Iran. Either one, or perhaps a different bill altogether, could become the Boland Amendment for Iran�capturing the breadth of both public anger and congressional opposition."

Bennis closes by noting that "it is certain that the Bush administration is very worried about the possibility of a new Boland Amendment to prevent an attack on Iran. As one former senior intelligence official told Seymour Hersh, 'they're afraid that Congress is going to vote a binding resolution to stop a hit on Iran, � la Nicaragua in the Contra war.'"

Still another way to stop Bush from attacking Iran, and an absolute necessity, writes physicist Jorge Hirsch (3), is for Congress to make "a nuclear attack on a non-nuclear nation in the absence of Congressional authorization illegal. In so doing, Congress would effectively be preventing Bush from launching any attack against Iran without its authorization, thus reclaiming its broader constitutionally assigned duties. Because Bush will not dare putting 150,000 American lives in Iraq at risk of Iranian retaliation without having the nuclear option on the table. By removing the nuclear option from the Bush toolkit, Congress would be forcefully imposing its will and that of the American people on an administration gone mad."

Consistent with Hirsch's suggestion, on February 1 "twenty-two of the nation's most prominent physicists (4) asked Congress ... to restrict the authority of President Bush to order nuclear strikes against non-nuclear-weapon states. The physicists include twelve Nobel laureates, the current and three past presidents of the American Physical Society, the nation's preeminent professional society for physicists, and the chair of the Union of Concerned Scientists."

There seems to be no doubt that Bush, Cheney, and their neocon supporters are intent on attacking Iran. Evidence of this intent is contained within the excellent February 10 article (5) by Ewen MacAskill, and the many articles in my three prior posts (see below). The following are the first two paragraphs of the MacAskill article.

"US preparations for an air strike against Iran are at an advanced stage, in spite of repeated public denials by the Bush administration, according to informed sources in Washington.

The present military build-up in the Gulf would allow the US to mount an attack by the spring. But the sources said that if there was an attack, it was more likely next year, just before Mr Bush leaves office."

The MacAskill article also describes the role of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) in influencing the Bush/Cheney war in Iraq, and present plans to attack Iran. For more on the AEI (5), including its connection to the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) (6) and prominent neoconservatives (7), see the following links.

A recent article by Craig Unger, as reported by Think Progress (8), also asserts that many of the same neocons that advised Bush to attack Iraq, are now encouraging him to attack Iran. Think Progress also highlights several other points in the Unger article that support the February 10 MacAskill article.

In closing, all of the above signs and reporting are promising, because they reflect action, honesty, reality, and justice. Congress needs to pass binding resolutions to begin to withdraw troops from Iraq, and to prohibit Bush and Cheney from attacking Iran.

Congress also needs to act on the many documented impeachable offenses of Bush and Cheney, and initiate impeachment proceedings. Elizabeth Holtzman (9), John Nichols (10), and many others have written about demands and initiatives for impeachment that are emerging in many places across the county, but which have been rarely reported in the mainstream media. We all need to do everything we can to make all of the preceding happen... and to reduce our dependence on oil.

####

Joseph Miller
Department of Psychology
51 Madeleva
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, IN 46556

Previous Updates

Past posts on stopping the ramp-up to war against Iran (with thanks to the St. Joseph Valley Greens):

Stop War Against Iran Update (2/4/07)
http://www.sjvgreens.org/current/stopIranWar2.shtml

Stop War Against Iran (2/1/07)
http://www.sjvgreens.org/current/stopIranWar.shtml

US/Israeli Plans to Attack Iran (1/21/07)
http://www.sjvgreens.org/current/iranAttack.shtml

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St. Joe Valley Greens, South Bend, IN

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Stop War Against Iran - Post #3

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