Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Lieberman Offers Iran Amendment to Defense Authorization Bill

Senator Lieberman (I-CT) will introduce an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2008 Defense Appropriations bill to "require a report on support provided by the government of Iran for attacks against coalition forces in Iraq."

Click here to download and view the amendment in its entirety.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

How does one counter this re-counting of what some of us feel is unsubstantiated intelligence of Iranian influence in Iraq? With a vote of 97-0, the Congress is fully convinced of Iran's desire to undermine peace in Iraq and to control the Shia-led government.

Carah Ong said...

The reality is, the issue of the Iranian role in Iraq is very muddy. The reality is that if the US wants to leave Iraq successfully, it is going to need a lot of help from the Iranians. Congress should really moderate its rhetoric on Iran, otherwise it will have the counterproductive effect of strengthening hardliners in Iran. Rather than tit-for-tat escalation, a wiser approach would be for Congress to call for the US to directly engage Iran in dialogue and solutions for a stable Iraq, dropping the warmongering rhetoric.

Be sure to check out the modified amendment, which now includes language, thanks to Mr. Levin, that says the Act does not constitute the authorization of force against Iran.