Washblog

This morning the US Senate approved the "Iran Freedom Support Act" (H.R. 6198) with little time for consideration or debate. This legislation imposes new sanctions on Iran and threatens to undermine the fragile international negotiations currently underway that would bring Iran into compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The US has been threatening a military attack on Iran for more than a year. Undermining the diplomacy of other nations brings us a long step closer to war.

H.R. 6198 was passed by the House on Thursday the 28th, the day after it was introduced. Apparently major changes in foreign policy are no longer worthy of debate--it's so obvious that Iran is evil, there's no reason to consult with the European nations which are negotiating with Iran, or to consider the likely negative impact of sanctions. After all, our sanctions on Iraq brought Saddam to his knees without too much suffering on the part of the civilian population, didn't they? And after he went into exile in Cuba, oil revenues allowed Iraq's new democracy to repair what damage there was.

Of course, we'll need a quarter million troops to reintroduce Western Values and Capitalism to Iran. Our brave boys and girls in Iraq will be home by then, but they deserve a rest, so we'll have to draft a new army, from among the best cohort of healthy, democracy-loving young Americans we have: the children of America's millionaires.