Congress presses Iran but wants to avoid war

Susan Cornwell
Reuters
Saturday November 3, 2007

With Americans weary of the Iraq war and U.S. elections on the horizon, Congress is struggling over how to get tough on Iran without giving President George W. Bush a blank check for a military strike.

Lawmakers have voted for some sanctions that are harsher than the White House wanted as a way of pressing Iran to give up nuclear work that the West says is aimed at building a bomb and Tehran insists is a peaceful power project.

But there is growing worry in Congress that Bush will resort to military force in Iran before leaving office in January 2009.

(Article continues below)

"Congress wants to play tough, but at the same time, avoid a war," said Karim Sadjadpour of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Many lawmakers, especially those facing re-election next year, regret that they paved the way for Bush to invade Iraq with a vote authorizing force in 2002. Opinion polls show the war is increasingly unpopular with a majority of Americans.

"Being tough on Iran is seen as good politics ... People can seem tough on terrorism by supporting what is seen as tough action against Iran," said Jon Wolfsthal, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"At the same time there is real concern about what the Bush administration may do before it leaves office," he said. "Very few people on Capitol Hill are prepared to just trust the administration to do the right thing."

Bush last week slapped sanctions on Iran's military and its financial sector, hoping to increase pressure on Tehran to stop uranium enrichment and curb what the U.S. government says are its terrorist activities.

Full article here.

Email This Page to:

 


PRISON PLANET.com     Copyright © 2002-2007 Alex Jones     All rights reserved.