As I get ready for work in the morning, I listen to either the House or the Senate on C-Span. Yesterday the House opened its day with one-minute speeches about the surge—alternating pro and contra. One member got up and said something so stunningly logical it froze me. Because I was in another room, I didn’t even know it was Dennis Kucinich until I accessed the Congressional Record today.
Haven’t you been wondering all week why Bush and his anonymous henchmen are coming forward now with flimsy, unsubstantiated evidence of Iranian arms in Iraq? Kucinich offers a lucid and very persuasive reason: Bush must produce something now, because the Congressional debates on war resolutions are occurring now. He is laying the groundwork to invoke a specific section of the 1973 War Powers Resolution and thus to bypass whatever Congress resolves.
Please read Kucinich's remarks below the fold. They are amazing.
Bush's emphasis on the phrase "I will protect our troops" is a tip-off to his strategy. This line was especially prominent in his recent press conference. Kucinich brilliantly deconstructs the motive for this:
BUSH LAYS GROUNDWORK FOR ATTACK ON IRAN -- (House of Representatives - February 15, 2007)
MR. KUCINICH: [...] yesterday the President said that the Iranian Government is supplying deadly weapons to fighters in Iraq, even though he cannot prove the orders came from the highest levels in Tehran.
Why is he maintaining this? I believe he is maintaining it to satisfy section 2C of the 1973 War Powers Resolution which reads in part: "The constitutional powers of the President as Commander in Chief to introduce United States Armed Forces into hostilities is clearly indicated by the circumstances and are exercised pursuant to a national emergency created by an attack upon the United States, its territories or possessions or its Armed Forces."
So what is going on here is that the administration is seeking a justification for a military conflict with Iran. That is why the administration is changing its emphasis. Its justification now is to protect U.S. troops in Iraq. Very significantly this justification could relieve the President of needing congressional authorization.
Contrary to his assertion, the President has been provoking Iran. The President has given U.S. military the authority to kill or capture Iranian operatives inside Iraq, but fails to present credible evidence that explosives used in Iraq have come from Iran.
He is laying the groundwork for an attack on Iran and appears to be preparing to bypass congressional authorization for a military strike against Iran.
As Kucinich also notes, Bush's strategy results directly from the ongoing House debates about the surge. It is an attempt to pre-emptively undercut whatever Congress resolves:
In light of the House of Representatives' action to disapprove of the President's escalation in Iraq and the mounting opposition to the war in Iraq, the President has advanced a new justification that could be used to bypass congressional approval for a military conflict of war.
I have been unable to make sense of the sudden White House PR surge about Iranian weaponry in Iraq. For me, Kucinch's simple, one-minute statement resonates with truth. His full statement is here.