Asking for War with Iran

In light of the recent White House warning to Iran over its ballistic missile testing, a recent bill introduced in the House by Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL-20) gives us a sense of how at least some of Congress is thinking and how the war-mongers in the Democratic Party are still alive and well despite the unexpected departure of their hawkish star candidate, Hillary Clinton.

House Joint Resolution 10 was introduced on January 3, 2017 and has been referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.   The bill, "Authorization of Use of Force Against Iran Resolution" is short (and not terribly sweet) with the following text:

According to the International Crisis Group's most recent status report on the Iran Nuclear Deal which just passed its one year anniversary (since implementation), Iran's nuclear program has been placed under the most stringent inspection mechanism ever implemented.  Since January 2016, the International Atomic Energy Agency has verified six times that Iran has fulfilled its obligations under the treaty.  The IAEA can now surveil Iran's nuclear fuel chain in real time and has access to sites that were previously blocked by Iran.  Right now, the most critical part of the deal is that communication between the United States (and its partners) and Iran remain open, particularly when it comes to relieving the sanctions that are still in place, particularly for Iran's banking sector.

In closing, let's look at a bit of background about Alcee Hastings, the sponsor of House Joint Resolution 10.  The 80-year-old Hastings is famous for this comment about the state of Texas and Texans in general:

He took over representation of Florida's 20th District from Debbi Wasserman Schultz, the disgraced former head of the Democratic National Committee who was forced to resign after WikiLeaks documents suggested that the DNC had backed Hillary Clinton's campaign and was critical of Bernie Sanders.

And, just in case you've forgotten, Rep. Alcee Hastings was designated as the second poorest member of Congress in 2014, having a net worth of $-4,732,002.  I guess when you have less than nothing, you have absolutely nothing to lose when it comes to prodding America into another war.  

It would benefit us all to remember that Washington sold us all a similar bill of goods on entering another war back in 2003 and look how that has turned out for everyone.