by Muhammad Sahimi, Antiwar.com, 8 July 2008
The U.S. House of Representatives is considering a resolution (HR 362) that calls on the Bush administration to take strong action against Iran, including a naval blockade of its ports. A similar resolution is being considered by the Senate (SR 580). The two resolutions are supposedly non-binding. They also mention explicitly that they are not granting the Bush administration any authorization to stage military attacks on Iran. Their language, however, is warlike. In particular, a naval blockade of Iran’s ports is certainly tantamount to a declaration of war.
One would expect that, on a matter as crucial as dealing with an important and influential Islamic nation such as Iran, especially after all the lies and exaggerations that were sold to the public in order to justify the invasion of Iraq, the resolutions that are being considered would speak the truth about Iran. That is not the case, though. Both resolutions are replete with factual errors, exaggerations, half-truths, and even outright lies. Below, actual sentences from the two resolutions are in italics; my analysis follows in normal text.