Under Construction Indefinitely

Author notes

Millenium Challenge Part 2

ibtrippen

on Dec. 22, 2012

This was supposed to be up before the election, but there were production issues. Sorry!
To make it more timely, in May the House of Representatives passed a non-binding resolution, and in September the Senate passed one, saying explicitly that if Iran becomes "nuclear weapons capable" then they would reject any response from the president short of invasion and war. The terrifying part is that they don't define "nuclear weapons capable." Does that mean it has nukes? or they have the ability to make nukes? or that they might have the ability to make nukes at some date in the also poorly defined near future?
The funny part is that at the end of the resolutions, congress put that these are not authorizations for the use of force. lol Right, so diplomacy with Iran, forming an alliance with the countries around Iran, economic isolation, or any other form of containment aside from force is off the table… but force is still not authorized. The really annoying part is that at no point in the resolutions do they admit that Iran has permission from the UN Security Council, and the IAEA to conduct nuclear research towards building nuclear generators. Nor do they admit that Iran has admitted and continue to admit weapons inspectors to their nuclear facilities.
I'm no fan of the Iranian government. The mistreatment of the homosexual community over there, as well as mistreatment of women and political demonstrators is well known to me. Their record on human rights is atrotious, but starting an unnecessary war under false pretenses is hugely irresponsible for us to do–or for the Israeli government to do–and will likely end poorly for all sides concerned.