I know there is more important news around (like Myley Shmyley’s bare shoulder/scary Incest Father/scary Angry Black Man). So it is not surprising that this little tidbit from Hillary Clinton got so little comment: “I want the Iranians to know, if I am the president, we will attack Iran. And I want them to understand that, because it does mean that they have to look very carefully at their society, because at whatever stage of development they might be with their nuclear weapons program in the next 10 years, during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate them.”
While Hillary wants to obliterate Iran and Iranian society, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad merely wants to eliminate the “Zionist” regime, not obliterate Israel: “Although the main solution is for the elimination of the Zionist regime, at this stage an immediate cease-fire must be implemented.” And yet when he came to visit in the US and talk at Columbia all kinds of people accussed him of advocating genocide. In fact, looking at his comments in context, he was actually calling for a negotiated solution, even though he wants more. Hillary doesn’t even mention negotiations.
And lest anyone defend Hillary by saying she is merely pandering to a specific audience, well the same could be said of Ahmadinejad. No political leader should ever talk about “obliteration” as an option in resolving conflicts. Here is an excellent commentary on this subject.