US senators warn Bush has no authority to attack Iran

There have been some who have argued on here, no doubt sincerely, that the Bush administration have said that they have no intention of attacking Iran and that the administration should be taken at their word.

It would seem that I am not alone in thinking that Bush is seeking an excuse to attack Iran as thirty US Senators have written to Bush warning that he has no authority to launch military action against Iran, and expressing concern about the administration's "provocative" rhetoric.

The senators, 29 Democrats and one independent, urged the resolution of disputes with the Islamic republic through diplomacy.

"We wish to emphasize that no congressional authority exists for unilateral military action against Iran," said the letter signed by senators including presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

The letter warned that a resolution passed by the Senate in September, calling for the designation of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist group, should not be used as a pretext for war.

It hit out at "provocative statements and actions" by the administration on Iran, after Bush last month warned Tehran must be barred from nuclear weapons to avoid the prospect of "World War III."

"These comments are counterproductive and undermine efforts to resolve tensions with Iran through diplomacy," said the letter, coordinated by Virginia Senator Jim Webb.

This letter is being sent shortly after Podhoretz has stated that he believes that President Bush will attack Iran before he leaves office, and Senator Hagel has called on the Bush administration to engage in "unconditional talks" with Iran.

There is certainly a growing body of opinion which detects a change in tone in the Bush administration towards Tehran and a fear that Bush will actually be insane enough to roll the dice one last time before he leaves office.

People are now going on the record stating that Bush has no inherent authority - and certainly none within the recent decision to label Iran's Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization - to launch a war against Iran. There is obviously a widespread fear that, with the recent heightening of rhetoric, that this is precisely what Bush and Cheney are intending to do.

I would obviously have much preferred that Democrats like Clinton did not vote to say that Iran's Revolutionary Guard are a terrorist organization and think it was playing with fire for them to do so.

Bush used a similar vote to charge ahead with the war in Iraq and there are some of us who don't doubt that he would use similar tactics to justify an attack on Iran.

The Bush administration are already expressing disappointment with the Russian and Chinese response to their calls for further sanctions against Iran, despite the fact that the administration have brought forward not a scintilla of evidence that Iran are seeking a nuclear weapons programme.

This is already beginning to seem similar to the situation which existed before the Iraq war when the UN were asked to show whether or not they were "relevant" - which meant whether or not they were willing to give Bush what he demanded - or whether the US would have to act without what Bush famously referred to as "a permission slip".

Again, similar to the build up for the war against Iraq, the Bush administration are turning up the rhetoric against Tehran until the rhetoric itself becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. The thirty Senators who have written this letter are right in what they say. Bush has no inherent authority to attack Iran.

But that didn't stop him when it came to Iraq and there are many of us who fear that it won't stop him when it comes to Iran.

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Tags: Bush, Cheney, Iran, thirty senators write to Bush, authority to declare war