In event in Holbrook, Iowa Saturday, Senator Dodd spoke briefly about the recent passage of a bill in the Senate that included harsh language against Iran. The Kyl-Lieberman amendment passed with a large majority, though Senator Dodd voted against it. Senator Hillary Clinton voted in favor it, a move that Dodd thinks set a dangerous precedent that heightens the risk of war with Iran.
(Apologies for the audio - there was a toddler stomping about and having a good ol' time while Senator Dodd was talking about global affairs.)
Comments
Sorry if I seem to have an opinion on all of this stuff, but it's been my sense that the nuclear issue, both in Iraq (where there was none) and Iran (where there's no weapons grade uranium yet) is primarily designed to promote a domestic agenda--to provide a rationale for why the US needs to resume the production and testing of a new generation of nuclear weapons, utilizing the plutonium that will be produced as waste by the new nuclear power plants that are planned.
Which is not to say that the invasion of Iraq and the threats against Iran aren't also surrogate efforts designed to demonstrate to Russia and China, the real nuclear powers, that the US is not to be denied. Which, of course, the resistance in Iraq is negating, as we speak, and which is why "not succeeding" in Iraq is so significant. Dismantling the bases, whose real purpose is not admitted but which Russia and China surely know (they do have satellites whose images the US can't block), will signal a significant retreat--as it ought, because the US had no business trying to get a permanent military presence there in the first place.
If the US were sincerely interested in stopping the proliferation of nuclear weapons, it would support, rather than oppose, the creation of nuclear weapons free zones, such as the one just set up in Central Asia.
Addendum--
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Clinton's Iran Vote Prompts A Harsh Back-and-Forth
Randall Rolph said he came to New Hampton, Iowa, on Sunday to see Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) with an open mind about whether to support her candidacy. After a tough exchange over Iran, he left saying he had ruled her out.
Rolph was one of several hundred people who turned out in this small town in northern Iowa for Clinton's appearance. When she called on him for a question, he pulled out a piece of paper and read a question about Iran.
Rolph asked Clinton to explain her Senate vote Wednesday for a resolution urging the Bush administration to label the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization. Rolph interpreted that measure as giving Bush authority to use military action against the Iranians.