The Workday Liberal

Joe Lieberman gave a speech yesterday. Typically I try to ignore Lieberman for fear of keeling over dead from an aneurysm as my blood pressure skyrockets.

Lieberman is just mystified at how it can be that anyone would conclude that the Kyle/Lieberman amendment would ever be read in such a way as to lead to the use of military force against Iran.

Lieberman: several left-wing blogs seized upon the Kyl-Lieberman amendment, offering wild conspiracy theories about how it could be used to authorize the use of military force against Iran.
These were absurd arguments. The text of our amendment contained nothing—nothing—that could be construed as a green light for an attack on Iran. To claim that it did was an act of delusion or deception.

So let me spell out the precise way that the Kyle Lieberman amendment could lead to hostilities with Iran. In case you have been on Mars the last few months, the Kyle Lieberman amendment designated certain units of the Iranian military as terrorist organizations.

The AUMF was passed immediately after 9/11 and authorized the President to use force against the terrorists who attacked us... "or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism". [My italics]

Just to give the reader an idea about how widely the net may be cast in determining who is harboring terrorists such as Al Qaeda, the President certified to the Congress that pursuing military force against Iraq: "is consistent with the United States and other countries continuing to take the necessary actions against international terrorists and terrorist organizations, including those nations, organizations, or persons who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001." Of course we can prove that Iraq's involvement with 9/11 was precisely zilch, as admitted by the President himself on several occassions.


So I'm not so sure that perceiving the Congress' designation of a section of Irans military as a terrorist organization as a prelude to military action is really such a paranoid or deceptive take on the matter. If anything Liebermans own words, both in yesterdays speech and in other recent outbursts further raises the alarm rather than proving how wrong headed us liberal bloggers are. For example, there was Lieberman asking General Petraeus why it wouldn't be a good idea for American forces to pursue the Iranian Quds forces into Iranian territory. Or Lieberman telling CBS that America should bomb Iran if they didn't stop supplying weapons to Iraqi insurgents... Even in yesterdays speech Lieberman seems to be frothing at the mouth for a go at Iran with rhetoric about Iran murdering American troops and Democrats being all wrong headed about their outlook on Iran.

I think the ones being deceptive about Liebermans outlook on whether or not America should be bombing Iran are not the liberal bloggers... but Joe Lieberman himself by feigning ignorance as to how the Kyle Lieberman amendment could ever be construed as justification to go to war with Iran.