Town Hall Discussion: "Is Iran Next?"

By: Lowell
Published On: 10/30/2007 3:12:02 PM

This should be interesting, check it out!

Is Iran Next?

A Town Hall Discussion Hosted by Rep. Moran On U.S. Foreign Policy towards Iran

When: Tuesday, November 13th 
7:00PM to 9:00PM

Where: George Washington Masonic Temple; Theater
101 Callahan Dr.
Alexandria, VA 22301

Who:
  * Congressman Jim Moran (D-VA), senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, Subcommittee on Defense.

Guest Panelists:

  * Lee Hamilton, President, Woodrow Wilson International Center, Chairman, Iraq Study Group, Co-Chairman, 9/11 Commission, former Chairman, House Foreign Affairs Committee;
  * Lawrence Korb, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress, former Assistant Secretary of Defense under President Reagan;
  * Danielle Pletka, Vice President for foreign and defense policy, American Enterprise Institute;

What: A town hall discussion on U.S. foreign policy as it relates to Iran, with special focus on recent reports that the Bush Administration is considering employing the military to prevent Iran from pursuing a nuclear power program.  This town hall is the first in the nation focused on this subject.



Comments



Don't do it Jim (humanfont - 10/30/2007 10:44:14 PM)
We all know it will take about 20 minutes for Moran to bring up AIPAC, or some tangent about AIPAC and this will turn the story into "Jim Moran is a big anti-semite", instead of Bush is trying to start WWIII.


AEI (Veritas - 10/31/2007 10:53:40 AM)
I wonder what Ms. Pletka is going to say about Iran. The AEI is big on military strikes against Iran aren't they?


what scares me (pvogel - 11/13/2007 11:49:23 AM)
Jim Moran had an Iraq town hall at minnie howard prior to the iraq invasion, they were spot on, and the fact he has one tonight about Iran means we are going to go there.
The bushies have brought us closer to global thermonuclear war than ever.


I took my 11 year old son to that one (LAS - 11/14/2007 12:54:15 AM)
I remember him asking us, "why is everybody so angry?"

My friend replied, "they're frustrated because nobody will listen to them. We're all angry because we don't know what else to do."

I shall always be grateful to Jim Moran for that town meeting at Minnie Howard. There wasn't any place else you could go where anybody would listen to you, where you didn't feel alone, like one small voice of reason drowned out by the incessant drumbeats of war.



Interesting exchange about this (Lowell - 11/13/2007 8:05:43 PM)
earlier today on the Washington Post

Arlington, Va.: Mark, Rep. Moran is hosting an event tonight at the George Washington Masonic memorial building in Alexandria, Va., on the run-up to a possible war with Iran. Will you or someone from The Post be there, to see if he says who is responsible for this, especially after he's said on more than one occasion now that the Jewish community led the charge for war with Iraq? Not that I'm advocating "gotcha" journalism, but I am curious to see who Moran pins the blame on for the increasingly bellicose stance the U.S. has with Iran.

Mark Plotkin: I don't work for The Post and the assignment editor does not clear his/her assignments with me but I would think that this surely rises to a news story. Jim Moran has a penchant of attracting news and news about himself. His controversial comments about the Jewish community and their role and influence in leading up to the Iraq war received enormous attention. If he should make the same kind of remarks about the Iran situation, he will undoubtedly get more attention which he does not seem to mind. There are people who think we are planning to go to war with Iran. I suggest you read David Ignatius's column today in The Post and the remarks of a former head of Israeli intelligence (Mossad). This individual takes a far different view than I presume Moran does. But, thank you for pointing this out and I am going to inform the WTOP news desk about this event.



first hour (pvogel - 11/13/2007 9:49:41 PM)
Jim  did not make outrageus statements, sorry folks.

Hamilton cancelled, Rep Tierny had not showed up, at one point Rep Moran was reading licence plates of illegally parked cars!

The crowd was dead serious, slightly angry.

The  Impeach them both signs  were there for the taking.



Well, he did have to address (LAS - 11/14/2007 12:48:45 AM)
the question of AIPAC's lobbying efforts to kill the Webb amendment. But he was very, very, very careful about it.


I went ... it was frustrating (Ron1 - 11/14/2007 12:16:53 AM)
The guest panelists were good, but frankly it wasn't anything I didn't already know about Iran (surprise!, the panelists both thought it would be an unmitigated disaster to invade).

Congressman John Tierney finally showed up, and then he and Congressman Moran spent most of their time talking congratulating each other for holding these various hearings (Tierney's in the House, Moran's tonight) and sucking up a bit to the crowd.

The Q&A from the crowd the produced the usual kooks and people interested in asking questions having nothing to do with the question at hand.

The frustrating part is that the Congressmen hedged and dodged the only pertinent question: what is being done by the Congress to actually box in the administration to prevent this war? Congressman Moran said that language had been included in the original defense appropriations bill in committee preventing the use of funds for actions against Iran, but that the language was removed due to 'heavy lobbying' once the bill reached the floor. Someone asked the obvious follow-up: Okay, who are these people that lobbied to have the language removed? Congressman Moran danced around the question, mentioning AIPAC and Congressmen Ackerman and Engel, but hedging and filibustering a bit to make sure he didn't step in it again on this topic.

At the end of the Q&A, one young lady asked the obvious question: why not begin impeachment hearings to at least gain leverage against the White House and keep all options open, to let them know that hardball can be played by both sides. Again, rhetorical tap-dancing by Moran. Congressman Tierney rescued Jim a bit by talking about how Jim had voted to refer Kucinich's bill to committee instead of outright tabling it, and that they thought it would receive some hearing there, but neither seemed eager to talk more about impeachment or get behind it.

The evening ended with a question by Ray McGovern, the ex-CIA analyst who pops up at these types of gatherings and asks the hard questions that elected officials hate to hear and hate more to have to answer. Again, why not impeachment? McGovern spoke pretty eloquently about the reasons for impeachment as tactical ways to put pressure on the admin (not to mention the fact that impeachment is the tool given to the legislature when dealing with a lawless executive), and how an impeached President giving an order to bomb Iran might not have the orders carried out due to being under impeachment. Again, dancing by the Congressmen. They thanked him for the question, and then got out of dodge.

I was pretty annoyed and not impressed by the answers given, so I went up to Congressman Moran and asked him, as a constituent, why was it that a Democratic majority could not get the appropriate language to the floor, and why didn't he just introduce a simple Sense of the Congress resolution that any illegal attack of Iran without congressional approval would result in instant impeachment of the President and VP? He basically blew me off, saying that he had already explained how the language was pulled out of the defense appropriations bill, disregarding my question, and then he turned and left.

Congressman Tierney explained that their job as Congressmen was to hold hearings, and that our job as citizens was to blog about and write letters to the editor, etc. I disagree -- their job is actually to lead, to get ahead of this issue, to find 218 sane voices and fight like hell to make sure that this war is averted.

Congressman Moran exhibited overall a decent understanding of US/Iranian history and is, in general, a pretty disarming and funny guy. However, it's clear to me that he could be doing a lot more to prevent this attack from happening, if he so wished. I suppose he deserves thanks for putting the forum together, but all it proved to me is that we are seriously lacking leadership in the Congress. It's like he gathered us all there to get us up to speed as to where things stood, and then shrugged his shoulders to say, "Well, what can I do? I'm just a congressman." Very frustrating.



I was there (LAS - 11/14/2007 12:50:16 AM)
I thought it was quite informative. But I was disappointed that the other side was not represented. I guess the audience was too hostile the first time around.



They don't list Dr Parsi (LAS - 11/14/2007 12:56:30 AM)
whom I thought was an amazing speaker. Eloquent and wise and reasonable. I was a bit late (no parking!) so I missed his credentials. Did anybody else catch them?


He was the highlight (Ron1 - 11/14/2007 1:06:25 AM)
http://www.tritapars...

I was glad to hear his perspective, as well.



Did they give a reason for Pletka's not showing? (Sui Juris - 11/14/2007 8:41:43 AM)
I showed up about 7:20, so missed the introductions.  I was a bit disappointed at the lack of a "pro" camp.