Congress must stop an attack on Iran

The Bush administration has shown a disturbing stance towards Iran since declaring it to be a part of an "axis of evil" in 2003. More recent threats to Iran in the President's address in addition to the dispatching of military warships to the Persian Gulf seem like an indication of an increasingly hostile position towards Iran. Leonard Weiss and Larry Diamond argue, "Launching another such war without international approval would leave us even more politically isolated and militarily overstretched". Instead, they propose "stiffening economic sanctions at a time when Iran's economy is ailing and the regime is losing popular support - offers a better and safer prospect of exerting leverage". Diamond and Weiss call on the Congress to use its power of the purse to rein in the efforts of the president.