How regrettable that Hillary has threatened, on Good Morning America, to "obliterate" Iran if it attacks Israel… How lamentable that the comment draws criticism from around the world, including a British foreign minister, but no one here bats an eye…
This kind of rhetoric does nothing for the people of Israel or Iran. An imbalance in nukes is destabilizing to any region. The ’67 War is thought to have been started in good part because France gave Israel nukes and Nasser knew it.
Our leaders ought to be winding down the Middle East, not winding it up. Trita Parsi, the Iranian-American realist, ought to be advising these candidates. Trita have you talked to Obama? His organization says that Arlan Specter has called for talks with Iran; and there Parsi says the following:
"Senator Clinton’s statement reflects a mindset of perpetual
conflict that has guided our Iran policy for the last seven years," Trita
Parsi, NIAC President, said. "This is disastrous for US national interest, since we are
in desperate need of a new and fresh Iran policy aimed at resolving the
conflict rather than prolonging it."
A mindset of perpetual conflict. I’m reminded of Joel Kovel’s comments at Brecht Forum the other night: that Israel has never wanted peace, that its internal dynamics depend on a state of militarized belligerence toward its neighbors. Why oh why are we engaged in this madness? If there’s one thing I love about Obama, it’s that he is too green, and has too much integrity, political and intellectual, to ever say such things.
