Lawmakers Don't Want War On Iran

By Michael McAuliff, Daily News Washington Bureau
New York Daily News
February 12, 2007

WASHINGTON - No one in Congress sounded ready to go to war with Iran yesterday, even as U.S. officials argued Iraq's neighbor is arming insurgents with lethal bombs.

According to reports from Iraq, Iranian-made devices called "explosively formed penetrators" - EFPs for short - have killed 170 American troops in Iraq.

"We should take actions to try to stop them," Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) said yesterday on CBS' "Face the Nation."

"You do that by interdiction, though. You don't do it by invasion."

Democrats were suspicious yesterday that the military's claims about EFPs - which can punch through a tank - were part of a White House push to lay the groundwork for an attack on Iran.

"I'm very skeptical, based on recent past history about this administration leading us in that direction. It worries me," Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd said on CBS.

One ex-Bush administration official agreed, telling Newsweek that hawks in the White House want an excuse to hit Iran.

"They intend to be as provocative as possible and make the Iranians do something [America] would be forced to retaliate for," said Hillary Mann, the former National Security Council director for Iran.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said on "Fox News Sunday" there is no such talk. "There's no indication that any of this has to do with going beyond Iraq," he said.