Letters to the Editor
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The Kyl-Lieberman Resolution
The Kyl-Lieberman resolution was, in a very real sense, even worse than "tanamount to a declaration of war." It was an indisputable grant of authority to bush to attack Iran. Even worse, it was a grant that the Congress cannot elect to rescind, unless it is willing to reverse its finding that the Iranian National Guard is a terrorist organization.
This is the penultimate WHEREAS clause from the Iraq AUMF of October 2002:
"Whereas the President has authority under the Constitution to
take action in order to deter and prevent acts of international
terrorism against the United States, as Congress recognized in
the joint resolution on Authorization for Use of Military Force
(Public Law 107–40);"
Note that the authority of the president to "deter and prevent acts of international terrorism" is CONSTITUTIONAL. In other words, Congress cannot limit or abridge that authority other than by amendment to the constitution.
By designating the IRG a terrorist organization, the Congress has acquiesced in bush's authority to unilaterally take action against the IRG and therefore against Iran - without further consultation with the Congress, and without Congressional approval.
The designation of the IRG was extraordinary for two reasons. First, we had never before designated the uniformed, organized military of a sovereign state as a terrorist organization. Second, the designation of the IRG as a terrorist organization completely flies in the face of administration's characterization of terrorist groups in the debate over the applicability of the Geneva Conventions. At that time, the administration argued that because terrorist groups do not wear uniforms and are not affiliated with a sovereign state they are not entitled to various protections of the Geneva Conventions extended to military groups.
The designation of the IRG as a terrorist organization effectively takes the position that ANY armed resistance to the United States is terrorist in nature, even if such resistance takes the form of attacks against legitimate mlitary targets such as the U.S. military, and even if such attack comes from the military of a sovereign state.
This is so absurd on its face that bush needed affirmation from the Congress. It is a position so utterly contradictory of the definition of terrorism that bush need congressonal affirmation in order to forestall criticism from congress in the future that bush's designation of the IRG as a terrorist organization was a brazen end-run around the right of congress to approve mlitary action against sovereign states.
The Kyl-Lieberman resolution was even more pernicious than the Iraq AUMF, which was itself a farce insofar as it permitted bush to launch war upon the certification of various matters that, as of March 19, 2003, were flatly contrary to fact.
The dems were duped again. Hillary disgrace herself again. The nation, and the nation's press, seems barely to have noticed.