http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/11/02/obama.iran.ap/index.html
Sen. Barack Obama introduced a resolution on last Thursday that says President Bush does not have authority to use military force against Iran. Because Iran is making weapons of mass destruction, and gaining nuclear power. Obamas resolution says any offensive military action against Iran must be explicitly authorized by Congress, and seeks to clarify that nothing approved so far provides that authority. Relating this event to some of the things we have spoken about in class i see a clear example of how the Checks and Balance's work how Congress is excerising their power, and in Chapter 10 reading about the Elections and actually how candidates work. All of a sudden the candidates running for the elections become more aware of what the president is doing and begin to come up with reolutions and legislations. This also helps the American public see these actions and choose weather they are going to vote Prospective (responsible party), Median, 0r Retrospective (reward and punishment).
http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=156296
This Article also states how Barack Obama has introduced this resolution and gives the same details as CNN, but the tehran times states how president Bush threatened Iran if they continue to produce these nuclear weapons and that there would be a possibilty of a World WarIII.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
The article in Tehran Times was from the AFP news service. They did a good job in providing context for the story. First, twenty-nine Senators wrote a letter to Bush that addressed a resolution that was passed in September. They felt that the President has recently overstepped the boundaries set out in that resolution. Bush has made statements that the Senators feel are "provocative" and they wanted to put the brakes on any unilateral move towards military action against Iran at this time unless and until the Congress would have the chance to weigh in. However, a letter that defines a resolution is not binding.
The follow-up is that now Senator Obama has put forward a resolution that is more explicit and his intent now is to nullify the vote that the Senate took in September so that Bush won't be tempted to misuse his authority or misinterpret the original resolution. If his resolution is supported and passed by the Senate, it would still need to be passed by the House of Representatives before it became law. So the letter might have an effect right away but the resolution could die in committee. In order to put pressure on the President, the legislators are taking several actions concurrently.
The CNN story showed better how Obama was using this issue to draw distinctions between Clinton and himself. Obama did not sign the letter that was sent to President, which I find dishonorable. If he really wants to send a strong message to the President, he should be willing to do whatever it takes. However, this seems like he wanted to score some points against Clinton by trying to "correct" the original resolution that she signed, which designated the Iranian National Guard as a terrorist organization. He is now on the campaign trail accusing her of making the wrong vote twice. This does seem like a political stunt. Lawmakers can introduce all the resolutions they want, but if they don't have broad support, it will never become law.
What I understand from the story is that many senators are in dissagreement with Presidnet Bush. They all think that he took advantage of power and when out of bundaries.
I think that even thoug the President got offended, he may think twice to proceed again without the support from Congress.
Connie
Post a Comment