Webb: Lieberman And Kyl’s Hawkish Iran Amendment Is ‘Cheney’s Fondest Pipe Dream’

[babylonsister]

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/09/25/webb-kyl-lieb-iran/

Webb: Lieberman And Kyl’s Hawkish Iran Amendment Is ‘Cheney’s Fondest Pipe Dream’

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(D-VA) made an impassioned appeal to his fellow senators, declaring that the Lieberman-Kyl amendment on Iran should be “withdrawn” because the “proposal is Dick Cheney’s fondest pipe dream.”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 continued:

Those who regret their vote five years ago to authorize military action in Iraq should think hard before supporting this approach. Because, in my view, it has the same potential to do harm where many are seeking to do good.

“At best, it’s a deliberate attempt to divert attention from a failed diplomatic policy,” said Webb. “At worst, it could be read as a backdoor method of gaining Congressional validation for military action, without one hearing and without serious debate.”

Watch it at link~

Webb said that amendment’s attempt to categorize the Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp as “a foreign terrorist organization” would, for all practical purposes, “mandate” the military option against Iran. “It could be read as tantamount to a declaration of war. What do we do with terrorist organizations? If they are involved against us, we attack them.”

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.

[acmavm]

1. Pipe dream? More like Cheney's wet dream.

[babylonsister]

2. I'd bet you $10 that's what he would have liked to have said, but

wouldn't have been semenly on the Senate floor.

[tridim]

5. Problem is, "pipe dream" and "wet dream" have two distictly different meanings. nt

[Cha]

3. I like Pipe Dream..it denotes ol darth

sittin' around smokin' whatever shit he smokes, dreamin' up more ways to Fuck over the USA.

[librechik]

13. The Stovepipe.

Cheney's alimentary canal

[Tom Joad]

4. This just better lose.

[Cha]

6. Fascist lieman and the repuke kyl

being sneaky trying to get us into war..godamn them to hell and put them in uniform and send them to Iran.

[Tom Joad]

7. It should be noted that this will get nowhere without the help of the majority of the rest of the

Senate, so perhaps the blame should be spread around some.
Every Senator who supports this is equally responsible for making terrible, tragic policy, should it pass.

[Cha]

12. Oh yeah, those two are just

initiating it. It bloodly well better not pass.

[Tom Joad]

8. This should be our line in the sand here. Any one who supports this idiocy

should be evicted from the Senate.

This should also be the top post of the day. this is very important people.

[0rganism]

9. Doesn't Sen. Reid have any control whatsoever over what comes to the floor?

Resolutions to condemn this, censure that, endorse whatever -- if they amount to squat anyway, it's a waste of taxpayer money. But if they have any legally binding components, they're dangerous as all hell. So why allow it?

A simple countermeasure might just be to eliminate the "sense of the senate" bullshit entirely. Amend the senate rules to avoid giving the evil cloWn his carte blanche for war.

[cali]

10. From the bottom of my heart:

Bless you, Senator Webb. You hit it dead on. And thanks for posting this babylonsister. You've done great work on shedding light on this vile amendment.

[cali]

11. kick

vitally important.

[Tom Joad]

14. Excellent analysis of this amendment by Josh Marshall at TPM

Watch the video.
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/

compares it to clinton (Dumbass) support for regime change in Iraq.

[rodeodance]

15. CALL your Senators NOW---Dem and REPUG alike--Say NO to Kyl-Lieberman

'sense of Senate"-----

Let them know! NOW. please.
and don't say they will not listen. who cares---give the staff a rough time and let them know!

[Tom Joad]

16. Reid announces he has not made up his mind about kyl/lieberman

It may be revised.
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/09/25/reid-lieberman-kyl-amendment-being-revised/

I don't know why Reid could not have just said
"I will oppose this as it now stands" or something stronger, like Jim Webbs comments

weak leadership begets bad wars.