Reader Posts

« previous | TPM CAFÉ READER POSTS HOME | next »

Hillary kicks off her diplomacy tour with flagrant violation of U.N.

avatar

Iran Protests to U.N. About Clinton Comments

TEHRAN — Iran has lodged a formal protest at the United Nationsabout comments by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton that the United States would “totally obliterate” Iran if it attacked Israel with nuclear weapons, the state-run news agency, IRNA, reported Thursday.

Iran’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Mehdi Danesh-Yazdi, sent a letter of protest on Wednesday to the United Nations secretary general and the United Nations Security Council denouncing the remarks, according to IRNA.

Mrs. Clinton made the comments in an interview on ABC last week. “I want the Iranians to know that if I’m the president, we will attack Iran,” she said when she was asked what she would do if Iran attacked Israel with nuclear weapons. “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 added.

Mr. Danesh-Yazdi wrote in the letter that Mrs. Clinton’s comments were “provocative, unwarranted and irresponsible” and “a flagrant violation” of the United Nations charter, IRNA reported.


Comments (19)

She is such a idiot, it pains me to think that i ever defended the bitch.

Let us try that again: "She is so irresponsible! It pains me to think that I ever defended her. Completely unwarranted provocation of nations is not something that you can build a trust relationship on. It does not help the U.S. re-establish its reputation as the responsible and fair superpower in the world."

See? THAT is change you can Xerox.

I like!!

Well she also pissed off Putin by saying he has no soul, its just very stupid diplomacy.

What a stark contrast.

From an Iranian blogger:

Many Iranians are obsessed with Barack Obama. If he goes to Iran, I'm sure he could fill Tehran's Azadi Stadium, which has a capacity of 100,000. To a large extent this is because of the nature of Obama's message about change and hope. Iranian people truly want to change their situation, get rid of decades of marginalization and restore their reputation in the world. They feel connected to his message of change. They are tired of living under the threat of economic sanctions and military attacks. Obama's remark about initiating a dialogue with Iran translated for many Iranians into hopes of normalizing the relationship between the countries and Iran rejoining the international community. For many Iranian women struggling for women's rights, Hillary is incredibly inspiring. Senator McCain, on the other hand, they see as just as a third term of President Bush, and I see no reason for them to connect to him.

That's really cool. It's amazing how he's tapped into a need that's felt by many people around the world. Do you have a link for that?

Now that is extremely interesting. Doesn't Iran have its presidential elections next year? What do you think that this tells us about what is likely to happen in that election?

avatar

Let me offer a rebuttal to this issue:

So what.

Nobody seems to understand that Clinton made a conditional statement, one that most politicians would echo:

IF Iran launches a nuclear attack against Israel, THEN the United States will launch a nuclear attack against Iran.

Does this sound like a threat? Hmm...well, it's only a threat if Iran is REALLY GOING TO NUKE ISRAEL. And if they did, you'd probably have a hard time finding politicians and generals that did not adopt the same policy as Clinton.

Perhaps everyone needs to take a moment to understand just how major an issue Iran nuking Israel would be. But unfortunately, everyone just takes Clinton's words and attempts to manipulate them into an active threat against Iran.

It would be down right miraculous considering that Iran has no nukes.

Next question: If Iran nukes Israel and the US nukes Iran, who nukes the US? Just asking....

The big deal is, that diplomatically it is unwise. You don't convince people to disarm by saying that you would destroy them. Granted, she said IF they attacked Israel. What if Israel attacked first? Then what? What should we expect Iran to do? What is our role in that? So, what would you do if you were an Iranian leader, you would figure you have enemies all around you so you better arm up and make sure that at least you're a part of the deterrence. Does she really want a return to the Cold War? It was an irresponsible thing to say but she knew what she was doing, she was pandering to Jewish voters in Pennsylvania.

"But unfortunately, everyone just takes Clinton's words and attempts to manipulate them into an active threat against Iran."

Actually Brand no one needs to twist anything Clinton said. That was such an irresponsible statement so as to make her unfit for the Office as a Democratic President.
It was absurd to make nuclear threats under the circumstances of that interview.

All that was necessary was to state that Israel is a very strong ally in the Middle East and the US simply will not permit an attack on them under any circumstances.

If you scan the world press you will find that they are comparing her to Ahmadinejad in Iran, whom most of the world recognizes to be a loony bin.

Such hawkish blustering is not befitting a candidate who is supposed to be a progressive feminist. But then neither is using racism to against a fellow democrat.

Some of Hillary’s supporters have become so blind in their support of her that they have left their reason at the front door. The statement she made was not that different from our idiot in chief's comment about Iran being part of the axis of evil in his State of the Union address in 2002.

At least some of the push back from Obama supporters against Hillary and company is because we ARE progressives. If Obama started conducting a stealth campaign against Clinton like a Republican I can assure you he would loose his core supporters, including myself.

I do not understand the behavior of Hillary's supporters as of late. Is it that you guys want to pull the party to the Center? That would be a legitimate position. Because if that is NOT what you want then how can you condone her kitchen sink strategy against Obama for the last 3 months?

I work with a Hillary Supporter who refuse to acknowledge that a TV ad showing Bin Laden was fear mongering. Or that hitting Obama for the positions of Wright is racist.

It seems to me that Hillary has lost her way and she is taking those supporters who claim to be progressives with her. What gives?

I wish I could recommend/tip your post.

That's not really the point. Her style of speaking in relation to foreign policy leaves much to be desired, diplomatically speaking. This is not the first, or even the second, time she's said something that would be called a "gaffe" relating to foreign policy.

And think of how this sounded to Iranian civilians. Put yourself in their shoes for a moment.

avatar

I'm not sure why, but your point seems to be lost on most Americans.

Iranian civilians hear some "cowgirl" from the U.S. talking about obliterating their entire country.


avatar

No president gets to make that call on her own.

If Senator Clinton wants our country committed to defend Israel that way, on the kind of short notice it would require, she must negotiate a treaty with Israel, and submit it for congressional ratification, and if it is ratified, she still may only act in a manner consistent with what's in the ratified document.

Neither politicians nor generals get to decide.

The Pledge of Allegiance? It's to the flag AND to the republic for which it stands.

Senator Clinton knows perfectly well she can't do what she said, but she said it anyway because she thought it would help her win this race.

Just like she knew the Iraq war was wrong, but she voted for it anyway hoping to win this same election.

Samantha Power was right!

If she's the nominee, she'll have to take Poli Sci 101 and learn about diplomacy. Evidently those trips to over 80 countries hasn't taught her anything about foreign policy.

On the contrary, OBLITERATION! is a national custom in many countries around the world.

"...And after tea and crumpets, we have scheduled OBLITERATION!"

avatar

Her rhetoric reminds me of the run-up to WWI (just ask McCain), especially when she said she'd attack anybody who attacked anybody in the Middle East. Somebody will attack somebody, and we'll be dragged inti it.

Post a Comment

Inside Cafe



Cafe Features


October 6-10

Book Cover

October 13-17

Book Cover

October 20-24

Book Cover

November 17-21>

Book Cover

December 1-5

Book Cover





Book Club Archive



Masthead

Editor-in-Chief
Josh Marshall

Site Editor
Lila Shapiro

Intern
Claire Wilcox



Subscribe to TPMCafe's feed.
Subscribe to TPMCafe's reader blog feed.

Advertise Liberally
Share
Close Social Web Email

"To" Email Address

Your Name

Your Email Address