Intelligence, Iran, and Judgment
Democratic presidential candidates have seized on the latest National Intelligence Estimate on Iran’s nuclear program to criticize President Bush’s Iran policy and spar with each other. In today’s debate on National Public Radio Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY), the party’s longtime frontrunner, came in for the most heat on Iran.
Clinton again defended her vote in favor of the Kyl-Lieberman bill, which labeled the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization. “There were other purposes for that resolution,” Clinton said. As a result of that bill, Clinton said, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards have altered their behavior. “I think we’ve actually seen the positive effects of having labeled them a terrorist organization.” Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) called the vote “self-defeating” and criticized Clinton, saying “there is no evidence” that the declaration has been effective. John Edwards also criticized Clinton. “Among the Democratic candidates, there’s only one that voted for this resolution,” he said.
Edwards said the United States should “work with our European allies and the European banking system to put a proposal of sticks and carrots on the table” for Iran. Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) called for increased multilateralism in U.S.-Iran policy, but, he warned, a “more multilateral approach is going to be more hobbled and difficult” as long as the United States remains in Iraq. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) pointed out that he has been “saying that there is no evidence that Iran had a nuclear weapons program” for several years. He also warned against use of the language by Clinton, Edwards, and Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) that “all options are on the table” with regard to Iran. “They actually encouraged President Bush and licensed his rhetoric,” he said. Mike Gravel insisted that Iran is “not a problem. Never has been, never will be,” he said. Obama disagreed, saying Iran “continues to be a threat.”
June 7th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
[...] her Democratic opponents for her September 2007 vote in favor of the Kyl-Lieberman amendment, which labeled the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a terrorist [...]