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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsLieberman Resolution on Iran Means War: Top Military, Intelligence Officials
By Kate Gould
Posted: 04/11/2012 12:20 pm
Top national security officials have warned that prospects for a diplomatic solution between the U.S. and Iran could be undermined by legislation likely to reach the Senate floor in the immediate aftermath of the April 13-14 round of U.S.-Iran talks. The legislation pushes impossible preconditions for diplomacy and radically lowers the threshold for war.
As early as next week, the Senate could vote on legislation that Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, former Chief of Staff for Secretary of State Colin Powell, said "reads like the same sheet of music that got us into the Iraq war, and could be the precursor for a war with Iran."
Wilkerson has joined me in lobbying members of Congress and their staff against the legislation, pointing out that it is "effectively, a thinly disguised effort to bless war."
Colin Kahl, who served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East from 2009 until late last year, is another of the top national security officials who have blasted the legislation and the policy shift that it endorses. At a Capitol Hill briefing earlier this year, Kahl warned that this resolution and similar initiatives could "box in our negotiators from being able to find a diplomatic solution." The majority of Congress has ignored these warnings, and have endorsed ultimatums that if pursued, would make diplomacy virtually impossible.
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kate-gould/lieberman-resolution-on-i_b_1417857.html
tabatha
(18,795 posts)Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)KG
(28,766 posts)indepat
(20,899 posts)his ilk who seem to want to use war as the first option.
gratuitous
(82,849 posts)Look, the last two wars are all old and dingy. What we need more than anything is a brand new shiny war! We'll take care of this one, promise.
DCKit
(18,541 posts)You're such a tool.
Blue Meany
(1,947 posts)Better yet, he could challenge Ahmadenajad to "single combat" to settle their dispute. Single combat is a time-honored tradition of avoiding war by having leaders fight a duel and accepting the outcome as final. There is precedent for this in Islam, as it was done with approval of the prophet Muhammad. Therefore, I'm sure any honorable and sincere Muslim leader would agree to it for the sake of his/her people, and no doubt the courageous, patriotic and selfless Lieberman would accept the challenge in a hearbeat. And if for some reason one of these honroable men shocked the world by refusing the challenge, they would expose their true characters: a willingness to have others suffer and die for their wars but an unwillingness to risk their own lives for the causes they say are so noble and right.
Initech
(101,542 posts)War with is a bad idea - very very bad idea.