Posted on 04/22/2008 3:23:30 PM PDT by Grampa Dave
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080422/pl_nm/usa_politics_iran_dc&printer=1;_ylt=AgHS711vSCz6dVRGpZ.x0x0b.3QA
Clinton says U.S. could "totally obliterate" Iran By David Morgan Tue Apr 22, 1:43 PM ET
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton warned Tehran on Tuesday that if she were president, the United States could "totally obliterate" Iran in retaliation for a nuclear strike against Israel.
On the day of a crucial vote in her nomination battle against fellow Democrat Barack Obama, the New York senator said she wanted to make clear to Tehran what she was prepared to do as president in hopes that this warning would deter any Iranian nuclear attack against the Jewish state.
"I want the Iranians to know that if I'm the president, we will attack Iran (if it attacks Israel)," Clinton said in an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America."
"In the next 10 years, during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate them," she said.
"That's a terrible thing to say but those people who run Iran need to understand that because that perhaps will deter them from doing something that would be reckless, foolish and tragic," Clinton said.
Her comments appeared harder than a week ago, when during a presidential debate she promised "massive retaliation" against any Iranian attack on Israel.
Obama rejected Clinton's rhetoric as saber rattling on a day when Pennsylvania Democrats voted in a party primary contest that could help decide which Democrat will face Republican John McCain for the White House in the November general election.
"One of the things that we've seen over the last several years is a bunch of talk using words like 'obliterate,"' Obama, an Illinois senator, said in a separate ABC interview. "It doesn't actually produce good results. And so I'm not interested in saber rattling."
CONTRADICTION ACCUSATION
The Obama campaign also issued a statement saying Clinton was contradicting her remarks at an August debate, where Obama spoke in favor of taking unilateral military action in Pakistan if the United States had actionable intelligence on the whereabouts of senior al Qaeda members.
Clinton had said she did not believe "people running for president should engage in hypotheticals" and called it a mistake "to telegraph" what U.S. strategy might be at a time of unrest inside Pakistan.
At a Tuesday news conference in the Philadelphia suburb of Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, Clinton said the question of Iran merited hypothetical discussion because a nuclear Tehran would require straightforward Cold War-style deterrence. "It's a question not of what might be on or off the table," she said.
Meanwhile, Obama said he would respond "forcefully and swiftly" to an Iranian attack against Israel or any other U.S. ally, whether conventional or nuclear.
Iran, which Washington and its allies charge is seeking nuclear arms, has voiced war-like rhetoric in recent years amid speculation its nuclear facilities could face U.S. or Israeli military action.
Tehran denies it is trying to acquire nuclear weapons and says it needs nuclear technology to generate electricity.
Israel is widely believed to have nuclear weapons but, as part of a policy of "strategic ambiguity," has not confirmed or denied the nature of its arsenal.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad outraged the international community in 2005 by saying "Israel should be wiped off the map." A week ago, a senior Iranian army commander said Iran would "eliminate" Israel in response to any military attack from the Jewish state.
(Additional reporting by Jeff Mason in Conshohocken; Editing by Eric Walsh and Bill Trott)
the beast said 'could' NOT would.
Or we could pow-wow with the UN and decide to sanction Iran with some very harsh words.
Yep, she could fly Bubba Bill over to bring back sacks of money for not bombing Iran.
> Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton warned Tehran on Tuesday that if she were president, the United States could “totally obliterate” Iran in retaliation for a nuclear strike against Israel.
I guess we know who wears the pants in the Clinton family! While her husband Bill was busy being a War Wimp, Hillary was busy joining the Marines and the Army, and eventually became a Secret Seal, learning how to dodge sniper fire and hunt ducks...
You should be thankful to have the opportunity to vote in someone with all of Hillary’s warfighting experience, rather than McCain, who only managed to get shot down over enemy territory! Hillary is an experienced hand at wiping countries out, so Iran had better take notice!
Rush played the tape today.
At the beginning of the statement, she said WOULD and later on, she said COULD.
So, she woud before she voted could ;)
Well, at least one of the three candidates has some balls. Now, if we can just move that up to stop screwing with Iraq or we’ll nuke you.
Define is, could, and would?
“Slither” back under her rock might be a better descriptive word.
Amazing how the rats have warned GW not to even consider doing anything to Iran, and she says this and has no retalitation from her party of peaceniks.
We could also lower taxes, quit gifting the wealth of our nation to so many people, stop illegal immigration...
We could do a lot of things Hillary, and the whole world knows you won’t. So butten it, you sap.
That is the best satire and tongue in cheek post of the day.
BOL!
Is this a “for the war before she was against the war” part two?
More than likely you are right. We just need some flip flops and a couple of waffles to go with this story.
We shouldn’t need to do that, what we do need to do is obliterate their nuke weapons program.
John took out a few of our planes.
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