U.S. Hawks Dive For Cover

[Purveyor]

Exactly five years ago to the month, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution authorizing the Bush Administration to invade Iraq. Among the senators, only a handful, including Dennis Kucinich, didn't vote for the 2002 resolution and several Democratic senators who voted for that resolution and who are currently presidential contenders for the 2008 election have expressed regrets; the only candidate who has not done so is Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, amazingly the current Democratic front-runner.

Similar to the Iraq war resolution, on September 26, the Senate voted 76-22 for the Jon Kyl and Joseph Lieberman-amended resolution to place the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, or Pasdaran, on the U.S. terrorist groups list. Clinton was the only Democratic presidential candidate who supported it and offered no apologies for the vote. Since then, on the contrary, she has adamantly tried to justify her decision all along the campaign trail. Is it coincidental that Senator Clinton and Joe Lieberman, an ardent supporter of Israel and amply funded by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), are in the same camp?

Clinton's decision to vote for the Kyl-Lieberman resolution became such a hot issue and a symbol of embarrassment for the entire Democratic Party that at a candidates' debate session in New Hampshire, Mike Gravel, one of the Democratic Presidential candidates, said the September resolution "is essentially a fig leaf to let George Bush go to war with Iran…I'm ashamed of you, Hillary, for voting for it." With that, the dam had broken and the pro-war Democrats had to run for cover by admonishing George Bush who had already gone over the cliff by associating Iran with WWIII.

By then nothing could stop the attacks on her character and class politics by thousands of anti-war citizens of America, and indeed around the world. Among countless comments, Jean Ross wrote "Just another sign that the Clintons and Bushes are IDENTICAL." J.D. Alessandro wrote: "Hillary's getting that great AIPAC money; it is an easy vote for her." With no small degree of sarcasm, Willie, a commentator wrote on October 20, "Is that like her (Clinton) thinking she was voting for diplomacy when 'Bush lied to her' in 2002? And if she was so sure she was voting for diplomacy this time, why is she running to Webb for cover?"

Among many Congresspersons lashing out at the hawks, Dennis Kucinich targeted the most aggressive pillar of the U.S. pre-emptive foreign policy. He said, "When you say all options are on the table, you give license to President Bush. The war in Iraq is illegal. Even planning for the war against Iran is illegal."

Meanwhile, a few members of the U.S. ruling circles had realized that the developments in Pakistan were taking precedence, and hence the Iran issue must be put on the back burners. The reality hit home that the U.S. cannot fight simultaneously in four countries with a total population of 300 million. This is an even bigger dimension than what Donald Rumsfeld had imagined. On October 30, at the Democratic Candidates NBC debate, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Joseph Biden said that while Iran was an important concern, the deterioration of "an out-of-control Pakistan" was a bigger threat. "The fact of the matter is, the Iranians may get 2.6 kilograms of highly enriched uranium," he said. "But the Pakistanis have hundreds-thousands- of kilograms of highly enriched uranium."

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http://www.payvand.com:80/news/07/nov/1106.html