05 May 2008

candidates that "cut and run"...

...don't exist.

contrary to what you might have gathered from listening to your favorite neo-conservative commentators and gad flies, hillary clinton and barack obama are not all that dissimilar to john mccain when it comes to foreign policy. and to be fair and honest, i could easily have said, "contrary to what you might have gathered from listening to you favorite pseudoliberal presidential candidate in his or her stump speeches..."

take a look at a quote from hillary clinton that i was not at all shocked to hear and even less shocked at how little outrage subsequently arose within the democratic party:

on april 22, she said, in reference to what would happen if iran were to launch an attack on israel, "i want the iranians to know that if I'm the president, we will attack iran. in the next 10 years, during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on israel, we would be able to totally obliterate them."

iran strongly condemned clinton for her remarks. iran's deputy UN ambassador, mehdi danesh-yazdi, called her comment "provocative, unwarranted and irresponsible" and "a flagrant violation" of the UN charter.

later, she had no regrets about her comment. "why would I have any regrets? i'm asked a question about what i would do if iran attacked our ally, a country that many of us have a great deal of connection with and feeling for, for all kinds of reasons. and, yes, we would have massive retaliation against iran."

and what about our friend, the peacenik, obama? on august 1 last year, he strongly warned pakistani leaders that if they failed to act against islamic extremists when he was president, he would not hesitate to send US troops into their country unilaterally:

"when I am president, we will wage the war that has to be won." he added, "the first step must be to get off the wrong battlefield in iraq and take the fight to the terrorists in afghanistan and pakistan."

so for those of you who consider yourselves peace-voters, and also those of you on the other end of the political spectrum who insist on spouting over-mileaged talking points, consider the facts.

hillary clinton and barack obama are in no bigger of a hurry than john mccain to put an end to this misguided foreign policy we have lived (and millions died) with for the past 40-odd years. furthermore, i see little difference between the violent, threatening, and extremely dangerous rhetoric of the two democratic candidates, and that of the current administration.

in either of their platforms on the subject opportunity for peace is minuscule, as there remains an over-arching arrogance and disregard for human life which requires that all in the international community behave to our liking if they don't want missiles accidentally falling through their roofs.

both candidates offer little HOPE, no BLUEPRINT FOR CHANGE, fear not STRENGTH, more destruction not RESTORATION.

obama and clinton are simply concerned with relocating the bloodshed.