According to wire service accounts reported on Al Jazeera English, the House of Representatives may have learned at least one lesson since they let the Iraqi genie out of the bottle in 2002:
A bipartisan group of politicians in the US House of Representatives is pushing for legislation to prohibit a US attack on Iran without congressional permission.
The effort, led by Walter Jones, a Republican, came as politicians voiced concerns the Bush administration might provoke a confrontation with Iran.
"The resolution makes crystal clear that no previous resolution passed by Congress authorises a US attack on Iran," Jones told reporters, referring to a 2002 vote by Congress authorising the US invasion of Iraq.
The report states that Jones has eleven co-sponsors for his resolution. Support for Jones' initiative is probably best articulated by Massachusetts Democrat Martin Meehan:
Martin Meehan, a Massachusetts Democrat, said that while he did not trust Iran or its intentions in the Middle East, he also did not trust the White House.
Meehan said the resolution on Iran was needed because the Bush administration had "lied so many times" in the run-up to the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Of course this resolution cannot become law without being passed by the Senate, as well as the House, and then being signed by the President; but, even if any subsequent activity turns out to be only symbolic, it is a symbol that the voters may remember over the next two years.
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