The Chickenhawk
Posted by Charles II on February 13, 2007
ANNE MILLER: Yeah, over the weekend Senator Clinton spoke in Berlin, Concord and Keene, and there were members of our community who were attending obviously all of those events. I went to hear Senator Clinton speak in Concord and was not called on during the meeting, but afterwards approached the Senator and asked her about the comments that she had made at the AIPAC meeting earlier in the week and asked her if she really would leave all options on the table and how could she threaten, in effect, other countries’ children with nuclear genocide. She looked me right in the eye, and she said, “No options are off the table. We cannot abide by a nuclear-armed Iran. It would be an existential threat to the United States.”
And what I found really interesting in that comment, in that use of the word “existential,” is that isn’t a word that’s used very much in US political discourse, but it is used in Israel’s political discourse. And that’s of deep concern to me that we have a Democratic presidential candidate who is a militarist of this nature and that she isn’t coming out and saying we need strong diplomatic action with Iran, which is really the only answer. There are no military solutions with respect to Iran that I can see. (emphasis added).
As long as Senator Clinton leaves the unprovoked use of nuclear weapons against an essentially defenseless nation on the table, she’s off mine. In no way, shape, or form is Iran a threat to the existence of the United States.
Weak Democrats who use threats of force to make themselves look strong are even more dangerous than crackpot, Armaggedon Republicans.
So send Chelsea, Senator Clinton. Or volunteer to fight your %$#*ing war against Iran yourself.
6 Responses to “The Chickenhawk”
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Sornie said
She’s going to run a rather dirty campaign and spend time attacking her own party. That and she has the whole “I supported the war” vote hanging over her head. Obama doesn’t and hat makes him higher up on the list then Hillary
Phoenix Woman said
Yupper. Plus, Obama has handled the last couple of GOP smear jobs very nicely. His takedown of John Howard was a thing of beauty.
Eli said
Every day I like Hillary less and less, and every day she sounds more and more like a Republican.
I’m sure this is just coincidence.
(Existential threat? WTF??? We’ll find out Iran’s not so defenseless if we’re stupid enough to invade them, but existential threat? Puh-leeze. Besides, it’s not like they could slip any of their nukes to some terrorists, because the serial numbers would totally give them away.)
Charles said
I don’t feel that negative toward her, Eli. But I feel she has shut off her sense of proportion and her sense of humanity in order to run for president. A proper answer to the question she got would have been, “Life is complicated. We can’t foresee every circumstance that might arise and there might be one where war would be required. Naturally, it’s the last option, but it has to be preserved as an option.”
When I talked about weak Democrats substituting tough talk for tough actions, I was thinking about LBJ, who got mired in Vietnam because he was afraid that the GOP would think he was soft on communism. By contrast, when Jimmy Carter refused to nuke Iran, even at the cost of his presidency, he was acting tough. He was holding to American principles of acting justly, as an example to other nations.
Um, of course, he was also providing lethal aid to the Contras and the mujahedeen. So, he was not perfect, but a good effort with Iran.”
MEC said
I have the horrible feeling that when Senator Clinton said Iran is an “existential threat” to the United States, she meant that it’s a threat to our existence. Senator Clinton, I do not think that word means what you think it means.
Charles said
MEC, she knows what it means and it means what you think it means. It is a statement that we must kill Iran or be killed by them.
It is a phrase that reflects insanity. She is using it in a calculated way.