Lieberman-Kyl Amendment

Jim Webb gives a powerful speech against the Lieberman-Kyl amendment. The legislation

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.

The rush to war is how we got into the Iraq mess.

Josh Marshall has a vlog on the amendment.

Lieberman, on the Senate floor, beats the war drums. The man sees violence as a solution to all foreign policy problems.

First, it will send a clear message—both to the regime in Teheran, and to our allies in the region—that the United States will not stand idly by and allow Iranian-backed terrorists to kill hundreds and hundreds of American soldiers, and dominate Iraq. It acknowledges what our military commanders and top diplomats are telling us, which is that, regardless of what we might desire here in Washington, the government in Tehran has made a decision to wage a proxy war against us—and we must respond.

Our amendment states that it should be the policy of the United States to stop the violent activities and the destabilizing influence inside Iraq of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, as well as its foreign facilitators like Lebanese Hezbollah, and its indigenous Iraqi proxies.

Our amendment also recognizes that thwarting Iran’s campaign of terror must be among the crucial considerations for any plan for the transition and draw-down of our forces in Iraq. As General Petraeus warned us in his testimony, the threat of Iran may in the long run prove an even greater danger to the stability of Iraq than al Qaeda. We cannot ignore it.

For that reason, the amendment also calls on the State Department to designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist organization and place the IRGC on the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists. This is the organization that is responsible for the murder of our soldiers. They are launching terrorist attacks against our troops—and so we should treat them as terrorists.

Democrats should not vote for this garbage just so they look tough on national security. Any foreign policy legislation with Lieberman's name isn't worth wiping your ass with. Money qoute:

(4) to support the prudent and calibrated use of all instruments of United States national power in Iraq, including diplomatic, economic, intelligence, and military instruments, in support of the policy described in paragraph (3) with respect to the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran and its proxies.

Lieberman wants war. Nevermind that are troops are bogged down in Iraq and the United States would be waging a three front war on countries that border each other. Joementem want to get his war on and he will let nothing stop him.