Hillary Clinton, NIE And Iranian Revolutionary Guard
Is it possible that
Clinton, who sits on the Senate Committee on Armed Services, should have had more information than other Senators before she voted on the
- Aeronautical and space activities peculiar to or primarily associated with the development of weapons systems or military operations; the common defense; the Department of Defense, the Department of the Army, the Department of the Navy, and the Department of the Air Force, generally; maintenance and operation of the Panama Canal, including administration, sanitation, and government of the Canal Zone; military research and development; national security aspects of nuclear energy; naval petroleum reserves, except those in Alaska; pay, promotion, retirement, and other benefits and privileges of members of the Armed Forces, including overseas education of civilian and military dependents; selective service system; and strategic and critical materials necessary for the common defense.
- Comprehensive study and review of matters relating to the common defense policy of the
Sen. Jim Webb who also sits on this Senate Committee in Armed Services found it very difficult to vote for the Liberman-Kyl Amendment;
- On the Senate floor today, Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) made an impassioned appeal to his fellow senators, declaring that the Lieberman-Kyl amendment on
Iran should be “withdrawn” because the “proposal is Dick Cheney’s fondest pipe dream.” Webb cautioned that the “cleverly-worded sense of the Congress” could be “interpreted” to “declare war” onIran . He continued:
- Those who regret their vote five years ago to authorize military action in
Iraq should think hard before supporting this approach. Because, in my view, it has the same potential to do harm where many are seeking to do good.
- “At best, it’s a deliberate attempt to divert attention from a failed diplomatic policy,” said Webb. “At worst, it could be read as a backdoor method of gaining Congressional validation for military action, without one hearing and without serious debate.”
- Webb said that amendment’s attempt to categorize the
Iran ’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp as “a foreign terrorist organization” would, for all practical purposes, “mandate” the military option againstIran . “It could be read as tantamount to a declaration of war. What do we do with terrorist organizations? If they are involved against us, we attack them.”
- He also slammed the lack of debate and examination that was accompanying the amendment, saying “this is not the way to make foreign policy”:
- 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.
So how did the experienced Hillary Clinton get it so wrong?
