[Peace-discuss] Iran

[Morton K. Brussel]

The crescendo for war with Iran increases…. An extract from Glenn  
Greenwald in Salon.com

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/08/29/iran/index.html

…The Iraq debate is over, at least from the perspective of actual  
results. It has been over for some time. The Congress is never going  
to force Bush to withdraw from Iraq. We are going to remain in Iraq  
in more or less the same posture through the end of the Bush  
presidency. That is just a fait accompli. The real issue of grave  
importance that remains unresolved is Iran, and it is hard to find  
causes for optimism there either.

There are, of course, significant steps that the Congress could take  
to impose at least some restraints on the Bush administration’s  
ability to attack Iran unilaterally. It could make clear that the  
existing Iraq AUMF does not include authorization to attack Iran  
inside Iranian territory. It could enact legislation requiring  
Congressional approval before an attack on Iran is authorized. It  
could make clear that no funding will be available for any such  
attack in the absence of a Resolution authorizing a new war.

But all of that is exceedingly unlikely. The Bush administration is  
obviously aware of how weak the Congress is. Even the most mild of  
those measures — an amendment which would merely have required  
Congressional authorization before the administration attacks Iran —  
was meekly withdrawn by Democratic House leaders back in May because,  
as The Hill reported, Israeli-centric Congressmen and AIPAC itself  
“lobbied heavily to remove the Iran provision in the supplemental.”

That happened a mere three months ago. Last month, the Senate  
unanimously passed a Lieberman-sponsored resolution gratuitously  
accusing Iran of acts of war against the U.S. — a resolution with no  
purpose other than to strengthen the case for war against Iran.  
Clearly, Congress can (or at least will) do nothing to restrain the  
White House.…
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