Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) has a bill, S.759, stating that the President cannot use any funds for military action against Iran without prior Congressional approval. This bill has now been introduced as an amendment to the supplemental war funding bill before the Senate. If passed, it would eventually go to a House-Senate conference to decide if it would be included in the final form of the legislation.
The amendment will come up for a vote this week, most likely TOMORROW. So make your voice heard today or early tomorrow! The chance of success is slim, but real -- and the situation is so urgent that it is well worth our best citizen-lobbying efforts.
This is our LAST CHANCE to achieve the most effective kind of legislative measure for restraining Bush from attacking Iran – one that invokes Congress’ right to control funding, and that will have a chance of surviving the coming confrontation and threatened veto over war funding. Eventually, Bush must yield enough to get a funding measure passed – let’s make sure that it includes a provision forbidding him to attack Iran on his own whim.
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If you doubt that an attack on Iran, though manifestly irrational, is a very real possibility, please check my earler diary, here, for detailed background and information. Or check many other diaries here at Daily Kos, including this one, posted earlier today by Commander Jeff Huber, US Navy (Retired).
If this amendment is to pass, some Republicans will have to vote for it. And unfortunately, some conservative Democrats won't. It seems some votes will be decided at the last minute. That means that a sense of urgent concern on the part of the public could have a real impact. Call or fax your Senators, whether Democrat or Republican (it’s too late for letters). You may want to make any of the following points:
--Our military is already overextended and Afghanistan desperately needs our attention.
--We have not exhausted diplomatic approaches to solving our problems with Iran.
--An attack on Iran would profoundly alienate all Islamic countries, and might well (as Pentagon war games found) result in a regional war in the Middle East.
--An attack on Iran would put our troops in Iraq at greatly increased risk. The leader of the largest Shiite militia, Moqtada al-Sadr, has already stated that if the US attacks Iran, his followers will attack US troops in Iraq.
--This amendment should not be necessary. According to the Constitution, the President does not have the power to initiate a war without Congressional agreement. But Bush’s past statements, particularly his signing statement on the resolution authorizing military force in Iraq, make clear that he has dismissed Congress’ constitutional war powers. Under his exaggerated "unitary executive" theory of presidential power, he claims the authority to go to war on his own. Congress must reassert the traditional balance of power enshrined in our Constitution. Conservatives as well as liberals, Republicans as well as Democrats, should support the Constitution.
To find your Senators’ contact information, go to Congress.org. On the left-hand side bar, click "Congress," then enter your zip code.
General Wesley Clark has described the mounting possibility of war with Iran as a national emergency. Yet most people in our nation are only vaguely aware of it, if at all. We are among those who have gotten the word. Please act now, on behalf of all Americans, and the Iranians and others in the Middle East whose lives and futures hang in the balance.
Thank you.