Colleen Hanabusa :
War with Iran
In this latest GOP-friendly act, Hanabusa joined such luminaries as Michelle Bachman and Ted Cruz in demanding new Iran sanctions -- just when the old sanctions have brought Iran to the negotiating table and President Obama has gotten Iran to freeze their nuke program, roll back their enriched uranium, and negotiate a permanent end to their nuclear bomb program.
Hanabusa, in joining the "bomb, bomb, bomb Iran" warhawks is helping derail peaceful negotiations because she and her group appear to WANT war with Iran.
Observers caution that Iran has deep distrust of the U.S. and its motives and worry that imposing new sanctions at a point when Iran has come to the table and is making concessions will most likely cause diplomacy to fail.
For the GOP, this is win-win. They get their long sought after war with Iran and they get to make President Obama's diplomacy fail.
John Kerry said, new sanctions “could lead our international partners to think that we’re not an honest broker.”
The White House has warned that Congress is providing ammunition to Iranian hardliners who want to undermine Rouhani’s more moderate approach. [WP]
According to the Washington Post, White House press secretary Jay Carney has accused lawmakers of trying to spoil negotiations in Geneva as part of a “march to war.”
The Nation quotes the powerful pro-Israel lobby, American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) as pushing hard for new sanctions
“AIPAC continues to support congressional action to adopt legislation to further strengthen sanctions, and there will absolutely be no pause, delay or moratorium in our efforts.”Despite the best efforts of Hanabusa and her hawk friends to derail the neotiations, last Jan 12, 2014, there was a breakthrough. Secretary of State John Kerry said:
"As of that day, for the first time in almost a decade, Iran's nuclear program will not be able to advance, and parts of it will be rolled back, while we start negotiating a comprehensive agreement to address the international community's concerns about Iran's programThe NY Times reported that
Iran and a group of six world powers completed a deal on Sunday that will temporarily freeze much of Tehran’s nuclear program starting next Monday, Jan. 20, in exchange for limited relief from Western economic sanctions.President Obama has warned that there is only a 50-50 chance these negotiations will succeed. Hanabusa and her Bomb Iran friends seem determined to make that chance zero.