Ms. Clinton Bangs her Shoe: We will OBLITERATE you

[blogslut]

The Boston Globe - http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/04/27/hillary_strangelove/

Hillary Strangelove
April 27, 2008

AMERICANS have learned to take with a grain of salt much of the rhetoric in a campaign like the current Democratic donnybrook between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Still, there are some red lines that should never be crossed. Clinton did so Tuesday morning, the day of the Pennsylvania primary, when she told ABC's "Good Morning America" that, if she were president, she would "totally obliterate" Iran if Iran attacked Israel.

This foolish and dangerous threat was muted in domestic media coverage. But it reverberated in headlines around the world.

Agence France Press - http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jEp2ukq1nzsx5QXn7Khdn7AqDPmg

British minister says Clinton's 'obliterate' Iran tone imprudent

LONDON (AFP) — A British foreign minister said Wednesday that US Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton's threat to "totally obliterate" Iran if it attacked Israel with nuclear weapons was imprudent.

Lord Mark Malloch-Brown, a former United Nations deputy secretary-general and the foreign office minister responsible for Asia, questioned the comments by the New York senator, made in an interview broadcast Tuesday.

"While it is reasonable to warn Iran of the consequence of it continuing to develop nuclear weapons and what those real consequences bring to its security, it is not probably prudent... in today's world to threaten to obliterate any other country and in many cases civilians resident in such a country," he said.

Pasadena Star News - http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/opinions/ci_9077274

Robert Scheer: The Clintons learned their lessons well

HOW proud the Clintonistas must be. They have learned how to out-slime what Hillary once termed the "vast right-wing conspiracy" in the effort to destroy a viable Democratic leader who dares to stand in the way of their ambitions.

The tactics used to kneecap Barack Obama are the same as had been previously turned on Bill Clinton, from radical-baiting an opponent's associates to challenging his resolve in protecting the nation from foreign enemies. Her eminently sensible and centrist - to a fault - opponent is now viewed as weak and even vaguely unpatriotic because he is thoughtful. Neither Karl Rove nor Dick Morris could have done a better job.

On Election Day, even with polls showing her well ahead in Pennsylvania, Hillary Clinton went lower in her grab for votes. Seizing upon a question of how she would respond to a nuclear attack by Iran, which doesn't have nuclear weapons, on Israel, which does, Clinton mocked reasoned discourse by promising to "totally obliterate them," in an apparent reference to the population of Iran. That is not a word gaffe - it is an assertion of the right of our nation to commit genocide on an unprecedented scale.

Rutland Herald - http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080426/OPINION/804260309/1038/OPINION01

Loose lips

April 26, 2008

You may have heard the statement from Hillary Clinton that she would be prepared to "totally obliterate" Iran if it should attack Israel.

Our leaders must be accountable for their words, and the words "totally obliterate" mean nothing less than nuclear annihilation. If John McCain had unleashed a threat of nuclear annihilation against Iran, the cry would go up that he was a crazy man. It is the kind of language with a lineage going back to Barry Goldwater or to Curtis LeMay, the Air Force general who threatened to bomb Vietnam "back into the Stone Age."

Where is the outrage about Clinton's comment? Is she being given a pass because she is a woman and so we assume she is just trying to sound tough? Or has our public discourse become so coarsened by years of belligerent rhetoric, torture, and preemptive war that the idea of obliterating several tens of millions of people no longer raises an eyebrow?

The Independent - http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/toughtalking-clinton-vows-to-obliterate-iran-if-it-ever-dares-to-attack-us-ally-israel-814090.html

Tough-talking Clinton vows to 'obliterate' Iran if it ever dares to attack US ally Israel

By Leonard Doyle in Philadelphia

As Pennsylvania went to the polls yesterday, Hillary Clinton sought to burnish her reputation as a hawk by warning Iran that as president she was prepared to "obliterate" the country, should it launch a nuclear attack against Israel.

"I want the Iranians to know that if I'm the president, we will attack Iran ," Mrs Clinton said in an interview with the ABC network. She has been trying to sow doubts about the ability of her opponent, Barack Obama, a first-time Illinois senator, to lead the US in time of international tension while stressing her ability to handle "the toughest job in the world".

[Barack_America]

1. Lol. Great title...

Now on to read the rest of the post...

;)

[chill_wind]

2. Hillary Nikita Krushchev with a megaphone.

Aren't we fortunate she has been nominated (YET)?

[nichomachus]

3. Actually, her remark was more dangerous than Krushchev's

When Khrushchev said "we will bury you," what the idiom meant was the same as when we say "I'll piss on your grave." In other words, "We will outlive you" or "outlast you." He didn't use it in the sense of "obliterate." He was only saying "We'll be around long after you're gone."

[blogslut]

6. It was a very dangerous comment from her

As for the intent of Krushchev's words, I defer to your knowledge. He said it 4 years before I was born.

[izquierdista]

8. Actually, he said

Эти туфли мне убывают!

[blogslut]

10. Now you made me look stuff up

:)

Teh Wikipedia (citing Stephen Pearl - translation chief for the UN) says Krushchev meant to imply that Russian socialism would outlast US capitalism.

Just the same, it sure raised the hackles of the American press if this 1956 article from TIME is any indicator:

"We Will Bury You!"
Monday, Nov. 26, 1956

At the final reception for Poland's visiting Gomulka, stubby Nikita Khrushchev planted himself firmly with the Kremlin's whole hierarchy at his back, and faced the diplomats of the West, and the satellites, with an intemperate speech that betrayed as much as it threatened.

"We are Bolsheviks!" he declared pugnaciously. "We stick firmly to the Lenin precept—don't be stubborn if you see you are wrong, but don't give in if you are right." "When are you right?" interjected First Deputy Premier Mikoyan—and the crowd laughed. Nikita plunged on, turning to the Western diplomats. "About the capitalist states, it doesn't depend on you whether or not we exist. If you don't like us. don't accept our invitations, and don't invite us to come to see you. Whether you like it or not. history is on our side. We will bury you!"

Just the day before, ambassadors of twelve NATO nations had walked out on a Khrushchev tirade that lumped Britain, France and Israel as bandits. Now Khrushchev was off again.

The Kremlin men cheered. Gomulka laughed. Red-faced and gesticulating, Nikita rolled on: "The situation is favorable to us. If God existed, we would thank him for this. On Hungary—we had Hungary thrust upon us. We are very sorry that such a situation exists there, but the most important thing is that the counterrevolution must be shattered. They accuse us of interfering in Hungary's internal affairs. They find the most fearful words to accuse us. But when the British. French and Israelis cut the throats of the Egyptians, that is only a police action aimed at restoring order! The Western powers are trying to denigrate Nasser, although Nasser is not a Communist. Politically, he is closer to those who are waging war on him. and he has even put Communists in jail."

link: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,867329,00.html

[Life Long Dem]

4. This is not going to unite. We are stepping into deeper divisions with the world.

This is not good. No matter how much "some" Clinton maniacs distort, joke, or act immature over this.

[rucky]

5. This thread is useless without...

saying the word "obliterate" out loud in a Russian accent.

[stellanoir]

7. Peace not Obliteration

[BeyondGeography]

9. Somebody tell me why Obama still isn't using this quote on the stump?

He could lump this one with "Putin has no soul" and highlight her penchant for alienting entire nations.

Judgment over experience, remember, Barack?

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0108/Hillary_Putin_doesnt_have_a_soul.html

[Scurrilous]

11. K & R

:thumbsup:

[berni_mccoy]

12. Isn't it Mrs. Clinton?

[blogslut]

13. Ms. is correct

And, oh so very PC. :)

[blogslut]

14. kick

with a shoe :)

[blogslut]

15. ...

good morning

[aquart]

16. Nikita didn't mean it either.

Did no one teach you hyperbole?

[crankychatter]

17. She's doing the same to the Democratic Party

Been saying it all week...

Clinton to the DNC:

"ACCEPT OUR SOVIET STYLE ELECTIONS IN FLORIDA AND MICHIGAN OR...

WE WILL BURY YOU!!!"

[crankychatter]

18. Error: you can only recommend threads which were started in the past 24 hours

oops

[crankychatter]

19. keepin it kicked

yup

[karynnj]

20. I wish I would have seen this earlier - there is no thread I would more like to recommend

HRC's comment was despicable and should have been condemned far more than anything said by a pastor of the other candidate. This was not tough talk, but dangerous talk of the Bush/Cheney variety. Obliterate is not in any way a word that could mean a "measured" response. Obliterate is MORE than Bush actually did to Iraq - though there was enormously less provocation.

I had said of all the candidates that what I really would have liked to see was some statement of their philosophy of when they thought it was justified to take a country to war. With Obama, we did know at least one set of circumstances where he wouldn't have gone to war. This comment makes me see that there was a second part to the question - which is what measures are acceptable. Obliterating a country goes against my moral values and I believe the values of most of this county. It is a thoughtless word treating the reality of war as if it were a video game.

The collection of editorials here is amazing. As the points out, this was not a "gaffe" or a statement that just came out wrong. This is showing a person - who unlike an Obama or a Kerry - doesn't really respect the people of other countries. To me this is somewhat personal. Years ago, I shared an office with an Iranian (persian was the more preferred word) woman, who was one of the nicest people I ever knew. She and her cousin were in the US as students when the Ayatollah came to power. To me, Iran is not just there despicable President, but people like these two people. People forget that Bush - declaring their elections not free enough - encouraged people to protest by not voting. It was then clear that the President, then from the pro-democracy party, had little power. The power was with the Clerics. Comments like this from Clinton reinforce the power of the current leadership. Look at how the US rallied around a President already sinking in popularity.

[blogslut]

21. Not just despicable but unrealistic

Iran doesn't have the bomb. They are not making the bomb. They gave up those efforts in 2003.

Israel on the other hand, has a good number of nuclear weapons and the Dolphin submarines from which to launch them.