Cross-posted from Dailykos by permission of author TomP
The New York Times reported today that “American intelligence agencies reversed their view about the status of Iran’s nuclear weapons program after they obtained notes last summer from the deliberations of Iranian military officials involved in the weapons development program.” These notes showed conversations in which “military officials complained bitterly about what they termed a decision by their superiors in late 2003 to shut down a complex engineering effort to design nuclear weapons.”
The White House now is retreating quickly from Bush’s earlier lies:
In a statement late Wednesday, the White House revised its account of what Mr. Bush was told in August and acknowledged that Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, had informed him new information might show that “Iran does in fact have a covert weapons program, but it may be suspended.”
“Bush has made a big mistake, and he’s not responding in a way that gives confidence that he’s on top of this,” said David Albright, a former weapons inspector for the International Atomic Energy Agency and president of the Institute for Science and International Security. “He isn’t able to respond because he’s not able to say he’s wrong.”
NY Times
So Bush knew in August 2007, if not before. We know that now. They lied and did it deliberately. They were trying Iraq War II, the sequel in Iran.
Let’s look at an overview of timeline from August on, after they knew.
The Kyl-Lieberman bill comes up for a vote in late September.
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 against Iran. “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.”
Think Progress, Webb: Lieberman And Kyl’s Hawkish Iran Amendment Is `Cheney’s Fondest Pipe Dream’
Clinton votes for it, and Obama misses the vote. Dodd and Biden vote against it. Edwards opposes it. The evening after the vote, Obama announces his opposition to K-L, but it later it is clarified that Obama does not oppose the urge to designate the Irainian Revolutionary Guard (“IRG”) a terroist organization, but rather opposes linkage to Iraq.
Iran sprang up as a campaign issue on Sept. 26, when the Senate voted 76 to 22 for a defense authorization bill amendment sponsored by Sens. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) and Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.). The amendment not only urged the administration to label the IRGC a terrorist organization but also said that the U.S. military presence in Iraq could have a critical impact on Iran’s ability to pose a threat to the entire Middle East.
Webb, however, voted against the Iran amendment, saying that it was enough to allow the administration to use force against Iran. “I think everybody knew what that vote was about,” Webb said on MSNBC’s “Hardball With Chris Matthews.”
snip
Obama’s opposition is unique among the Democratic candidates because he is on record supporting the designation of the IRGC as a terrorist organization. His opposition, said an adviser, is based on other sections of the measure that use Iran to justify the continued U.S. military presence in Iraq and that say it is in the national interest for the U.S. military to counter Iran in Iraq. The adviser said the amendment is worrisome because there is no stipulation noting that nothing in it authorizes military action
Washington Post
The night of the K-L vote, at the debate, after former Senator Gravel mentioned it, John Edwards forcefully made K-L an issue and tried to rise public awareness of the danger we were facing in Bush’s march to war with Iran:
But I want to come back to a discussion that took place a few
minutes ago to make everyone understands what Senator Gravel is talking and Senator Clinton was talking about. Because there was a very important vote cast in the United States Senate today. And it was, basically, in a resolution calling the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization.
I voted for this war in Iraq, and I was wrong to vote for this war. And I accept responsibility for that. Senator Clinton also voted for this war.
We learned a very different lesson from that. I have no intention of giving George Bush the authority to take the first step on a road to war with Iran.
And I think that vote today, which Senator Biden and Senator Dodd voted against, and they were correct to vote against it, is a clear indication of the approach that all of us would take with the situation in Iran because what I learned in my vote on Iraq was you cannot give this president the authority and you can’t even give him the first step in that authority because he cannot be trusted.
Edwards: Hillary Did Not Learn From 2002 AUMF Vote
Clinton defended K-L and her vote at the debate. Obama had missed the vote and was silent on the issue at the debate. John Edwards fought back at the debate.
Here is one Democrat who also stood tall in refusing to pass a resolution asking for the designatation of the military forces of another nation as a terrorist organization, Speaker Nancy Pelosi:
It could be brought up (by someone else), but I’m not bringing it up,” she said. “It’s a Sense of the House. What is the point? This has never happened before, that a Congress should determine that one piece of somebody’s military is that.”
NY Observer
As Edwards and Webb, among others, warned, Bush took the K-L resolution and ran with it. He ratched up the bellicose rhetoric.
Remember, we now have evidence that they knew in August that Iran had ended the program in 2003.
Bush: Threat of World War III if Iran goes nuclear
Wed Oct 17, 2007 6:30pm ED
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President George W. Bush warned on Wednesday a nuclear-armed Iran could lead to World War III
Reuters, Oct. 17, 2007
And Cheney addded his two cents, which is worth even less:
LEESBURG, Va. (AP) — The United States and other nations will not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon, Vice President Dick Cheney said Sunday.
“Our country, and the entire international community, cannot stand by as a terror-supporting state fulfills its grandest ambitions,” Cheney said in a speech to the Washington Institute for Near East Studies.
He said Iran’s efforts to pursue technology that would allow them to build a nuclear weapon are obvious and that “the regime continues to practice delay and deceit in an obvious effort to buy time.”
If Iran continues on its current course, Cheney said the U.S. and other nations are “prepared to impose serious consequences.”
USA Today
They were lying and knew it at the time. Note the qualification in bold.
At a news conference Wednesday, Bush suggested that if Iran obtained nuclear weapons, it could lead to a new world war.
“I’ve told people that if you’re interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them (Iran) from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon,” Bush said.
USA Today
And the march to war continued with the designation of part of the IRG as a terrorist organization, a policy supported by both Clinton and Obama, even though they differed over K-L on other grounds:
WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 — The Bush administration will announce a long-debated policy of new sanctions against Iran on Thursday, accusing the elite Quds division of the Revolutionary Guard Corps of supporting terrorism, administration officials said Wednesday night.
The administration also plans to accuse the entire Revolutionary Guard Corps of proliferating weapons of mass destruction, the officials said.
“Today, George Bush and Dick Cheney again rattled the sabers in their march toward military action against Iran. The Bush Administration has been making plans to attack Iran for many months. At this critical moment, we need strong leadership to stand against George Bush’s dangerous `preventive war’ policy, which makes force the first option, not the last.
snip
“I have called for strong, capable diplomacy to deal with the challenge of Iran, and a carrots and sticks strategy aimed at results–not the Bush/Cheney path, which would escalate tensions, enable attacks, and lead to unintended consequences.”
John Edwards
John Edwards continued to oppose Bush’s march to war:
Today, Senator John Edwards outlined his strategy to contain Iran during a major foreign policy speech in Iowa City, Iowa. Based on the lessons learned from Iraq, Edwards offered a comprehensive plan to deal with the threat of Iran, beginning with the repudiation and replacement of President Bush’s “preventive war” doctrine.
“The war in Iraq isn’t even history yet, but the Bush Administration is repeating the march to war with Iran – and they’re getting help from people who should know a lot better,” said Edwards. “George Bush, Dick Cheney, and the neocon warmongers used 9/11 to start a war with Iraq and now they’re trying to use Iraq to start a war with Iran. And we have to stop them.
John Edwards, Nov 5, 2007
And at the last debate, John Edwards forcefully opposed the designation of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization, and labeling them as “proliferators of weapons of mass destruction,” because it was part of Bush’s march to war with Iran.
As John Edwards said,
“We’ve seen this movie before.”
Then the truth began coming out this week:
“The new National Intelligence Estimate shows that George Bush and Dick Cheney’s rush to war with Iran is, in fact, a rush to war.
The new NIE finds that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and that Iran can be dissuaded from pursuing a nuclear weapon through diplomacy.
This is exactly the reason that we must avoid radical steps like the Kyl-Lieberman bill declaring Iran’s Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization, which needlessly took us closer to war. And it’s why I have proposed that we pursue a comprehensive diplomatic approach instead.”
Edwards Statement On New National Intelligence Estimate On Iran
We were right about Iraq. The war never should have happened. We were right on Iran, yet far too many Democrats either enabled Bush in his march to war, or failed to lead in opposition.
The question John Edwards asked in the debate on September 25, the night of the K-L vote, is the question we need to ask:
I voted for this war in Iraq, and I was wrong to vote for this war. And I accept responsibility for that. Senator Clinton also voted for this war.
We learned a very different lesson from that. I have no intention of giving George Bush the authority to take the first step on a road to war with Iran.
In September, Kyl-Lieberman passed by a vote of 76-22.
The Kyl-Lieberman Iran amendment — which ratchets up the confrontation with Iran by calling for the designation of its Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization responsible for killing U.S. troops — just passed overwhelmingly, 76-22.
TPM
That is so similar to the vote on the AUMF in 2002. What the hell were 25 Democrats thinking?
Bush lies, many Democrats believe it, and we march to war. Bush lies and Democrats are too afraid to call Mr. 26% on his bullshit. Pathetic.
It’s time, as John Edwards puts it, for Democratic elected officials to “show a little backbone.” Stand up to Bush.
This country cannot afford the failure of leadership demonstrated by too many Democrats on Bush’s march to war with Iran.
If people have any question why I support John Edwards, despite his bad vote in 2002, it’s because he learned and he fights. We cannot afford timidity or enablers to Bush anymore.
I learned in my vote on Iraq was you cannot give this president the authority and you can’t even give him the first step in that authority because he cannot be trusted.
It’s time for some other Democats to start learning that and stand up to Bush and Cheney.
