'Provocative' Clinton angers Iran (BBC News)

[Muttocracy]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7376741.stm

Tehran has complained to the UN about remarks made last week by Hillary Clinton on the circumstances under which the US might attack Iran.

The Democratic presidential hopeful said last week the US could "totally obliterate" Iran if it attacked Israel.

Tehran, which insists its nuclear programme is solely for power generation, denounced her words as "provocative and irresponsible".

It said the remarks were "a flagrant violation" of the UN Charter.

In a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, Mehdi Danesh-Yazdi, Iran's deputy ambassador to the UN, said Mrs Clinton had "unwarrantedly and under erroneous and false pretexts threatened to use force against the Islamic Republic of Iran".

edit to add - continues at the link.

[Cha]

1. Yeah, that's hilary in a nutshell..

attention grabber..literally sucks the oxygen right outta the room with all her obliteration talk.

She needs to get drafted.

[rpannier]

2. And Iran has against Israel

And
Israel has against Syria
and
the US has against the PDK
and
the PDK has against the ROK
and
Colombia has Ecuador
and
Venezuela has against Colombia

If I spread the net wide enough, I can make that claim against anyone, any country, anytime, anywhere.

It's typical posturing by any government "Play the victim card"

[dana_b]

3. reckless comments. she's not even president yet and already pissing them off. n/t

[Muttocracy]

5. exactly. Iran is problematic, but declaring war before you're even a nominee

is dumb foreign policy and military strategy. And threads on DU about oil prices, etc. etc.

[jbnow]

13. Even bush didn't threaten to obliterate a country. It is

uglier than even a threat of war
# To do away with completely so as to leave no trace. abolish.

That's not saying "We'll protect Israel (and evidently everyone under her new umbrella). We'll attack in response. e will wipe out nuclear capability.
It's "We'll wipe them off the face of the earth". The president, clerical leaders, military, teachers, grocers, doctors, grandmothers, infants, everyone, a whole culture and their little dog Toto

Imagine if some potential new leader said that about us.

[libnnc]

4. Great.

Just what we need. More sphincter mouthed diplomacy. :eyes:

[jillan]

6. Reminds me of the riots that Obama caused in Pakistan with his remarks.

Pakistani protesters burn a U.S. flag to condemn U.S. presidential hopeful Barack Obama's remarks, Friday, Aug. 3, 2007, in Karachi, Pakistan. Pakistan criticized Obama for saying that, if elected, he might order unilateral military strikes inside this Islamic nation to root out terrorists. (AP Photo/Shakil Adil)

Even Biden was upset with Obama over that.

[Muttocracy]

7. You're right, I remember that one, too. They both need to be careful what they say.

The world is REALLY watching the primaries, but many subtleties will not come across overseas.

[barack the house]

14. Well if say the a nation said the same to America would folks say it was subtle.

[jbnow]

15. Well I think part of the issue in Pakistan was how Obama

was the weird ways it got reported at times. People from both parties accused him of being naive to say he'd bomb Iran or invade attack. I didn't worry about what Obama said but I did worry about what people said he said getting back to Pakistan when it got reported. Lots of press about how he wanted to do a unilateral unprovoked invasion.

John McCain and Bush were still saying that this year.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/367/

Feb. 20, 2008, Sen. John McCain took a claim that President Bush made a week earlier and cranked it up a notch, saying that Sen. Barack Obama wants to bomb Pakistan.

Which is not quite the same as what he said

"He said he would continue to provide military aid to Pakistan as long as the authorities there work to close terrorist training camps and prevent the Taliban from using Pakistan as a staging area for attacks in Afghanistan.
Then Obama added: "I understand that (Pakistan) President Musharraf has his own challenges. But let me make this clear. There are terrorists holed up in those mountains who murdered 3,000 Americans. They are plotting to strike again. It was a terrible mistake to fail to act when we had a chance to take out an al-Qaida leadership meeting in 2005. If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won't act, we will."

Actually a fine policy though he probably should have said more about diplomacy and working with them, which seems clear enough from what he said paragraph before.

But I worried when I started hearing "Bomb" "Invade" "Attack" about how their interpretation would sound to Pakistan.

Now "obliterate", that word is really dang clear.

[Muttocracy]

16. yes, the reporting on that one was unfair

and her language was much more direct - saying "If I'm elected we will..." if she meant "If I'm elected and Israel is attacked in such and such a way..." comes across quite differently, and who knows how it looks in translation.

[Muttocracy]

17. one thing I remember about that - Biden was upset with the way he said it, not the content

e.g., attacking based on concrete evidence of bin Ladin in specific place (actionable intelligence) - but you shouldn't broadcast that ahead of time.

[eridani]

8. Jeez, if she hadn't said "obliterate" then no one in the rest of the world or Iran--

--would ever realize that the US has the military power to annihilate any country on earth at eill.

[berni_mccoy]

9. This is also causing an increase in the speculation of oil, inflating the price of gas

Hillary's carelessness and lack of judgment are very real problems for Americans' wallets.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=5762587&mesg_id=5762587

[Zachstar]

10. Goddess of Peace eh?

[DerekJ]

11. Didn't even clinch the nomination and already started an international crisis.That’s Hillary for you

A walking disaster

[woolldog]

12. She's ready on day one....

....to threaten countries with nuclear holocaust.