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The following is from retired USAF Colonel Sam Gardiner today:

It is amazing how far Members of the Congress will go in support of Israel . Hidden within a resolution now being considered on the Hill is what amounts to a suggested declaration of war against Iran .

Representative Mark Kirk from Illinois is circulating a Sense of the Congress Resolution (H. Con. Res 362). The resolution now has 47 co-sponsors and “demands that the President initiate an international effort to immediately and dramatically increase the economic, political, and diplomatic pressure on Iran to verifiably suspend its nuclear enrichment activities by, inter alia, prohibiting the export to Iran of all refined petroleum products; imposing stringent inspection requirements on all persons, vehicles, ships, planes, trains, and cargo entering or departing Iran…”

This option in the resolution is being pushed by the American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee. At the AIPAC meeting in Washington last week both Senators McCain and Obama mentioned an embargo of refined products without any details.

I don’t how the United States inspects aircraft flying from Moscow to Tehran . I don’t know how the United States inspects trucks going from Azerbaijan and Pakistan into Iran . The ships part, however, produces a fairly clear image. The United States Navy operating inside and outside the Gulf stops and searches all ships entering Iranian ports. If the ships are carrying refined products, they are ordered to leave the area. If they refuse, warning shots will be fired. If they continue to refuse, lethal action will be initiated.

Since destination is not always clear, on occasion the United States Navy will have to enter Iranian territorial waters. The United States Navy will be stopping Russian ships and searching them. The United States Navy will be stopping Chinese ships.

To their credit, the McCain campaign must have begun to understand the implications. A spokesman issued a statement yesterday that the Senator was talking about, “a voluntary withdrawal from the Iranian markets of the companies providing gasoline is one option.”

One hopes there can be equal wisdom in the “Sense of the Congress.”

Former UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix has criticized the US for keeping open the possibility of a military action against Iran.

Blix was in Rome on Friday to take part in an international gathering of experts on nuclear proliferation that was held, coincidentally, during US President George W. Bush’s three-day stop in the city.

“The military threat may well be counterproductive,’’ Blix said in a news conference.

“The rewards are more important, the carrots rather than the sticks,’’ the AP quoted the veteran Swedish diplomat as saying.

Blix tried to avert the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq because no weapons of mass destruction had been found by UN inspectors.

He said the US and Europe should offer incentives including support for Iran joining the World Trade Organization, improved economic relations and guarantees against outside attacks.