Cord Byrd: “last week the Senate voted on an amendment to the Defense authorization bill that designated a portion of the Iranian…”

“last week the Senate voted on an amendment to the Defense authorization bill that designated a portion of the Iranian Armed Forces as a terrorist organization. I joined 21 of my illustrious colleagues in voting against that amendment. It was a dangerous, unnecessary provocation that is escalating the confrontational rhetoric between the United States and Iran. In response to the passage of that amendment, the Iranian Parliament on Saturday designated the U.S. Armed Forces and the Central Intelligence Agency as terrorist organizations. Would someone please explain to me what has been achieved by this exchange of international verbal spitballs? It is deeply troubling to see the Senate joining the chest pounding and saber rattling of the Bush administration. I am no apologist for the Iranian regime, anymore than I was for Saddam Hussein, but I fear we may become entangled in another bloody quagmire. We have been down this path before. We have seen all too clearly where it leads. Four and a half years ago, Secretary of State Colin Powell made a speech before the United Nations Security Council claiming to have evidence that proved Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and was an imminent threat to U.S. and international security.”