Obama Criticizes Clinton For Issuing Warning, Sees ‘Saber Rattling’
Iran must not be so reckless as to launch a nuclear attack on Israel, because the United States would retaliate and “totally obliterate” Iran, Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, said on ABC, on the Good Morning America show.
Because the United States doesn’t yet have a ballistic missile defense system in Europe, its options are limited as far as shooting down any nuclear-tipped missiles that Iran might develop and use to attack Israel.
And Iran is growing increasingly dangerous, as the German ambassador to the United States noted. (Please see separate story in this issue.)
The U.S. drive to install a Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system to protect friendly nations against Iranian missiles hasn’t yet won full and final approval, though NATO has backed it. The GMD system won’t be operational until well into the next decade.
That leaves the United States to depend on deterrence to stay the hands of Iranian leaders, much as the United States prevented the former Soviet Union from launching a nuclear strike by threatening the Soviets with a massive U.S. nuclear retaliation, in the policy of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD).
In a similar vein, Clinton said Iran must understand that if it launches a nuclear holocaust on Israel, the United States will obliterate Iran.
Clinton portrayed any move by Iran to launch a nuclear strike on Israel as an act of insanity.
“We will attack Iran” if Tehran launches a nuclear strike on the closest U.S. ally in the Middle East, Clinton indicated.
While she said that her vow to obliterate Iran is in one sense a terrible thing to say, it must be said to avert any Iranian miscalculation that could lead to Iranians launching missiles at Israel, a catastrophic assault that would be “reckless, foolish and tragic,” she said
Her opponent in the Democratic primary, however, declined to take the same hard line with Iran.
Sen. Barak Obama of Illinois didn’t say just what he would do if Iran launched a nuclear attack on Israel, instead criticizing Clinton for “saber rattling.”
Some Republicans are hoping that Obama will be the Democratic nominee, because then he will face the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona.
McCain was a war hero in Vietnam, a Navy aircraft carrier pilot whose plane was shot down. He spent six years in a prisoner of war camp in Hanoi.
He has had extensive experience with military matters as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, where he now is the ranking Republican.
Clinton also is a member of the committee that oversees military programs, including procurement.
When her husband, Bill Clinton, was president, he attempted to broker a peace between Israel and the Palestinians, an effort that continues to this day.
Further, Bill Clinton often supported allies by employing American military power, including repeated directives to U.S. Navy aircraft carrier groups to defend Taiwan, entering the strait between Taiwan and mainland China when Beijing was firing missiles toward the island nation or engaging in other bellicose behavior.