Disappointing

[libertango]

Here's the roll call vote in the Senate for the non-binding (but politically useful) resolution regarding the use of force in Iran. 76 ayes, 22 nays, and 2 not voting (who would be Messrs McCain and Obama).

Washington state note: Cantwell was honest and voted Nay. Murray spat in the face of her constituents and voted Aye.

Ms Clinton, who has yet to see a war she didn't like, voted Aye.

Comments

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Kind of surprised that Cantwell and Murray didn't vote the other way around, but I haven't really looked at the resolution yet.

[urlgirl.livejournal.com]

Here's the text of the "sense of the Senate" resolution:

(b) Sense of Senate.--It is the sense of the Senate--

(1) that the manner in which the United States transitions and structures its military presence in Iraq will have critical long-term consequences for the future of the Persian Gulf and the Middle East, in particular with regard to the capability of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to pose a threat to the security of the region, the prospects for democracy for the people of the region, and the health of the global economy;

(2) that it is a vital national interest of the United States to prevent the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran from turning Shi'a militia extremists in Iraq into a Hezbollah-like force that could serve its interests inside Iraq, including by overwhelming, subverting, or co-opting institutions of the legitimate Government of Iraq;

(3) that it should be the policy of the United States to combat, contain, and roll back the violent activities and destabilizing influence inside Iraq of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, its foreign facilitators such as Lebanese Hezbollah, and its indigenous Iraqi proxies;

(4) to support the prudent and calibrated use of all instruments of United States national power in Iraq, including diplomatic, economic, intelligence, and military instruments, in support of the policy described in paragraph (3) with respect to the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran and its proxies;

(5) that the United States should designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as a foreign terrorist organization under section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act and place the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps on the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists, as established under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and initiated under Executive Order 13224; and

(6) that the Department of the Treasury should act with all possible expediency to complete the listing of those entities targeted under United Nations Security Council Resolutions 1737 and 1747 adopted unanimously on December 23, 2006 and March 24, 2007, respectively.

Regardless of how disappointing this is, I don't see it as having to do with the use of force in Iran. The only slippery slope to that, that I see, is the part about designating the Revolutionary Guard as a foreign terrorist organization. I'd say this is what explains the high "Yea" votes, FWIW. Then again, I may be missing something :-)