Caving In

Recently, the United States Senate passed an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal 2008. Dubbed the Kyl-Lieberman resolution, it aimed to "express the sense of the Senate regarding Iran." In its final version, the most significant, and controversial, passage read:

that the Unites States should designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as a foreign terrorist orguanization under Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act and place the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps on the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists, as established under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and initiated under Executive Order 13224.

Potentially a huge mistake. It is true, as Joshua Micah Marshall noted on 9/26/07 in TalkingPointsMemo, that the State Department already has designated the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as a terrorist organization. But it is not true that such a designation renders its placement in legislation irrelevant. Ever since the Iraq war, sometime after the declaration of Mission Accomplished, started to turn sour, Republican hawks have derided Democrats who voted for the Iraqi war resolution and since turned against the war. It is not unlike the "but you started it" cry of children on the playground (back when children were on playgrounds). This strategy has worked politically as the mainstream media generally have spread the Repub disinformation that Democrats who voted for the resolution actually voted for the war itself. Bush's efforts to gin up public support for a strike against Iran because of a nuclear program have been for naught; it may be time for him to play the terrorist/9-11 card.

As you can see here (and if you're reading this, you probably already know), Senators Dodd and Biden voted against, and Senator Clinton voted for, Kyl-Lieberman. (Although I'm tempted to suggest that Clinton was motivated by a desire to have the authority waiting for her as she is inaugurated, there is a report that she will be co-sponsoring an anti-Iran war bill to be introduced by Virginia Senator Webb.) Obama was not present, a repetition of his disappearing act from the Republican resolution condemning MoveOn for its anti-Petraeus ad. Still, the resolution passed 76-22 and 20 of 22 Senators voting "nay" were Democrats (including Vermont's Bernie Sanders, from the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party). The only two Republicans voting "nay" were, not surprisingly, Nebraska's Chuck Hagel and, surprisingly but significantly, Richard Lugar, a leader on foreign policy hailing from the Republican state of Indiana.

As the Iraq war has demonstrated, Congress needs to reassert its interest in foreign policy and not cede to the Executive Branch powers the Founding Fathers did not give it nor intend it to have.