Senate panel rejects requiring Congress sign off before Iran strike

[Boats]

Senate panel rejects requiring Congress sign off before Iran strike
BY: JORDAIN CARNEY - The Hill - 05/22/19 03:57 PM EDT
RE: https://thehill.com/policy/defense/4...re-iran-strike

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday rejected a Democratic proposal to require congressional approval before the U.S. can take military action against Iran.

The panel voted 13-9 against a proposal blocking the administration from using funding to carry out a military strike in or against Iran without congressional signoff, according to Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the committee.

Murphy and Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) said earlier Wednesday that they were going to bring up their proposal for a vote in the committee as an amendment to a Syrian foreign policy bill.

"Congress is a co-equal branch that has the sole authority to declare war – so we don’t have to sit around and watch this administration spiral us into another endless conflict in the Middle East," Udall said in a statement.

Murphy added that Congress should "remind this administration that they do not have legal authorization to launch a war against Iran without our consent and that no one else is responsible but Trump for putting us on this blind campaign of escalation with no off-ramp."

The push for a vote comes a day after top members of the administration, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan, briefed lawmakers on intelligence detailing recent actions by Iran, as President Trump and Republicans have warned of a growing threat from Tehran.

Shanahan appeared to try to tamp down concerns about a the potential for a military conflict with Iran after the briefing.

"We have deterred attacks based on our reposturing of assets, deterred attacks against American forces," he told reporters. "Our biggest focus at this point is to prevent Iranian miscalculation. We do not want the situation to escalate. This is about deterrence, not about war."

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Personal note: Why are we so dead set to have another conflict now with Iran? Is the White House going nuts! We've got so much shit in the fire right now - why start another blaze. This is a bad move. Unless we are attacked I see no reason for just moving in and start another major conflict. Has anyone remembered the word PEACE!

Again I state why is it every new President wants to start a WAR!.. Unless provoked try finding a way to get things resolved without dropping bombs and sending our troops back into that God awful place again!!

Boats

[Boats]

Pentagon plans to send 5,000 more troops to Middle East amid Iran threat: US officials
By: Arab News 5-22-19
RE: http://www.arabnews.com/node/1500911/middle-east

(Note: is this BS or have we been pushing buttons?)

- Tehran and Washington have this month been escalating rhetoric against each other

- The US military deployed a carrier strike group, bombers and Patriot missiles to the Middle East earlier this month

WASHINGTON: The US Department of Defense is considering a US military request to send about 5,000 additional troops to the Middle East amid increasing tensions with Iran, two US officials told Reuters on Wednesday.

Tehran and Washington have this month been escalating rhetoric against each other, following US President Donald Trump’s decision to try to cut Iran’s oil exports to zero and beef up the US military presence in the Gulf in response to what he said were Iranian threats.

The officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the request had been made by US Central Command, but added that it was not clear whether the Pentagon would approve the request.

The Pentagon regularly receives — and declines — requests for additional resources from US combatant commands throughout the world.

One of the officials said the requested troops would be defensive in nature.

This appeared to be the latest request for additional resources in the face of what US officials have said are credible threats from Iran against US forces and American interests in the Middle East.

The Pentagon declined to comment on future plans.

“As a matter of longstanding policy, we are not going to discuss or speculate on potential future plans and requests for forces,” Commander Rebecca Rebarich, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said on Wednesday.

Acting US Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said on Tuesday that while threats from Iran in the Middle East remained high, deterrence measures taken by the Pentagon had “put on hold” the potential for attacks on Americans.

The US military deployed a carrier strike group, bombers and Patriot missiles to the Middle East earlier this month in response to what Washington said were troubling indications of possible preparations for an attack by Iran.

Trump had warned on Monday that Iran would be met with “great force” if it attacked US interests in the Middle East.

[Boats]

Guards Commanders Challenge U.S., Say Gulf Under Their Control
By: Radio Farda 5-22-19
RE: https://en.radiofarda.com/a/guards-c.../29957280.html

Posturing Photo link: https://gdb.rferl.org/FBA03A95-086D-...w1023_r1_s.jpg
Iran's Commander Major general Gholamali Rashid

GENEVA, May 22 (Reuters) -
The United States and its supporters do not dare attack Iran because of its "spirit of resistance", a senior Revolutionary Guards commander was quoted on Wednesday as saying.

Tensions have spiked between Iran and the United States after Washington sent more military forces to the Middle East, including an aircraft carrier, B-52 bombers and Patriot missiles, in a show of force against what U.S. officials say are Iranian threats to its troops and interests in the region.

"If the criminal America and its Western and regional allies don't dare carry out a face-to-face military attack against our country it is because of the spirit of resistance and sacrifice of the people and youth," Major General Gholamali Rashid said, according to the semi-official Fars news agency.

In a Twitter message addressed to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday, an adviser to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the U.S. military deployment to the region was a deliberate provocation.

"You @SecPompeo do not bring warships to our region and call it deterrence. That's called provocation. It compels Iran to illustrate its own deterrence, which you call provocation. You see the cycle?" the adviser, Hesameddin Ashena, tweeted in English.

Later on Wednesday, Fars quoted another Guards commander as saying the elite force and regular Iranian military units had complete control of Gulf waters north of the Strait of Hormuz.

"Everything north of the Strait of Hormuz is under our control," Ali Fadavi was quoted by Fars as saying, referring to the strait at the Gulf's southeastern end through which about a fifth of the oil that is consumed globally flows.

"(Movements of) American battleships in the region are under the complete control of Iran's army and the Revolutionary Guards," Fadavi told Fars, without providing details.

In a statement, the U.S. military said it would continue to fly and sail wherever international law allowed.

"We stand ready with our allies and partners to ensure freedom of navigation and the free flow of commerce throughout the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility," Captain Bill Urban, a spokesman of U.S. Central Command, said.

On Sunday, U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted: "If Iran wants to fight, that will be the official end of Iran. Never threaten the United States again!"

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What is it the Middle East wants? Hostility will only ruin their lands and make their people suffer? All this chest pounding only causes more death and destruction. Is it their water or what? There's been enough killing in the Middle East they don't need it and we don't want it - but yet buttons seems to be pushed almost every day in that area. All this posturing needs - is one fatal mistake - and its war! I don't think it's just the Muslim ideology - I think its their leaders that are pushing all the buttons. And who gets hurt - the civvies - their infrastructure and for what? What is it that is causing all this grief in the Middle East??

Boats