For a presidential candidate supposedly prepared on "day one" to deal with the tough foreign-policy challenges America faces, Hillary Clinton's recent remarks on Iran have shown her to be as tactless and irresponsible as our current excuse for a president. Asked Tuesday on ABC's Good Morning America what she would do if Iran were to attack Israel, Clinton immediately dispensed with any diplomatic option and suggested that America would simply "obliterate" Iran and its population if it were to even consider attacking Israel (see Los Angeles Times). Reminscent of nothing so much as Bush's "bring 'em on," Clinton's apparent attempt to show how tough she is only demonstrates that she is perhaps as intellectually unprepared to represent America on the world stage as that idiot still missing from his village in Texas.
Nor has Clinton's absurd remark escaped the attention of America's overseas allies or of the world press. "While it is reasonable to warn Iran of the consequence of it continuing to develop nuclear weapons and what those real consequences bring to its security," leading British diplomat Lord Mark Malloch-Brown gently commented, "it is not probably prudent ... in today's world to threaten to obliterate any other country and in many cases civilians resident in such a country." Reaction in the Middle East was not so gentle, as comments in the Saudi-based Arab News show:
"This is the foreign politics of the madhouse. It demonstrates the same doltish ignorance that has distinguished Bush's foreign relations. It offers only violence where there should be negotiations and war where there could be peace. At a stroke, Clinton demonstrated to everyone in this region that if she were the next occupant of the White House, Iraq-like death and destruction would be the order of the day."
Calling Clinton "the war chick," the Asia Times commented likewise as follows:
"When that phone rings at 3am at the White House, what does a true red-blooded Madam President do? She calls her generals and orders them to 'obliterate' Iran. In other words: she orders the killing of 70 million people.... Hillary's positioning spells Imperial Washington in all its glory - and hubris. Not only McCain; a president Hillary will mean more wars in the Middle East."
Stateside, meanwhile, columnist Robert Scheer had the following to say on Macho Girl's threat to "totally obliterate" the Iranian people should their government unwisely choose to attack Israel:
"Seizing upon a question of how she would respond to a nuclear attack by Iran, which doesn't have nuclear weapons, on Israel, which does, Clinton mocked reasoned discourse by promising to 'totally obliterate them,' in an apparent reference to the population of Iran. That is not a word gaffe - it is an assertion of the right of our nation to commit genocide on an unprecedented scale.... It is bizarre that a politician who bought into the phony threat about Iraq's non-existent weapons of mass destruction arsenal now plays political games with the alleged threat posed by Iran."
This latest display of diplomatic ineptitude by Clinton follows previous foot-in-mouth episodes including that absurd claim to have faced sniper fire in Bosnia which made her the laughingstock of the civilized world. Trying to appear tough, she succeeds only in making a fool of herself. Judging from her latest remarks, the only thing Hillary Clinton appears prepared to do on "day one" if elected president is to be as big a potential global disaster as her swaggering predecessor.
Mark C. Eades
http://www.mceades.com
