Senators Warn Against War With Iran

[Omaha Steve]

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20070130/D8MVS5R00.html

Senators Warn Against War With Iran

Jan 30, 5:12 PM (ET)

By ANNE GEARAN

WASHINGTON (AP) - Republican and Democratic senators warned Tuesday against a drift toward war with an emboldened Iran and suggested the Bush administration was missing a chance to engage its longtime adversary in potentially helpful talks over next-door Iraq.

"What I think many of us are concerned about is that we stumble into active hostilities with Iran without having aggressively pursued diplomatic approaches, without the American people understanding exactly what's taking place," Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., told John Negroponte, who is in line to become the nation's No. 2 diplomat as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's deputy.

Obama, a candidate for president in 2008, warned during the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing that senators of both parties will demand "clarity and transparency in terms of U.S. policy so that we don't repeat some of the mistakes that have been made in the past," a reference to the faulty intelligence underlying the U.S. invasion of Iraq.


Iraq Study Group co-chairman, former Indiana Rep. Lee Hamilton testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, Jan. 19, 2007 before the House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on the group's recommendations for Iraq. (AP Photo/Dennis Cook)

Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., a possible presidential candidate, asked Negroponte if he thinks the United States is edging toward a military confrontation with Tehran. In response, Negroponte repeated President Bush's oft-stated preference for diplomacy, although he later added, "We don't rule out other possibilities."

FULL story at link.

[qwlauren35]

1. HOORAY!!!

Took 'em long enough... I would have liked to have heard this the day after the SOTU address, but I can live with a week after, if it means that Congress is unified on this issue.

[MasonJar]

2. Let's see. How do you try diplomacy first when you refuse to

actively engage in any kind of negotiations with a country? Answer that one, Johnny boy.