Awful Truth about Hillary, Barack, John… and Whitewash
Thursday, April 12th, 2007 by RLRFrom The Free Press
By Norman Solomon
The Pentagon’s most likely next target is Iran.
Hillary Clinton says no option can be taken off the table.
Barack Obama says that the Iranian government is a threat to all of us and we should take no option, including military action, off the table.
John Edwards says, Under no circumstances can Iran be allowed to have nuclear weapons. And: We need to keep all options on the table.
A year ago, writing in The New Yorker, journalist Seymour Hersh reported: One of the military’s initial option plans, as presented to the White House by the Pentagon this winter, calls for the use of a bunker-buster tactical nuclear weapon, such as the B61-11, against underground nuclear sites.
For a presidential candidate to proclaim that all options should be on the table while dealing with Iran is a horrific statement. It signals willingness to threaten — and possibly follow through with — first use of nuclear weapons. This raises no eyebrows among Washington’s policymakers and media elites because it is in keeping with longstanding U.S. foreign-policy doctrine.
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It’s interesting that Solomon and other political pundits keep wringing their hands over the failings of Clinton, Obama, and Edwards and ignore the candidate who displays few if any of the failings that create such anguish. That candidate is Bill Richardson. His view and policy re Iran? See his petition at http://richardsonforpresident.com/page/s/Iran .
There’s more about Richardson that makes even more inexplicible the lack of attention paid him by many pundits in an American Prospect commentary at http://tinyurl.com/2gobf4 .
As for MoveOn and the Democratic candidates, as reported by MoveOn in its April 12 e-letter, its members who attended local sessions and watched the MoveOn Town Hall on Iran the previous weekend voted differently for the Democratic candidates from those who did not watch and listen to what the candidates actually said. Here are how the folks who attended the event sessions ranked their choices:
Sen. John Edwards — 25%
Gov. Bill Richardson — 21%
Sen. Barack Obama — 19%
Rep. Dennis Kucinich — 15%
Sen. Joe Biden — 10%
Sen. Hillary Clinton — 7%
Sen. Chris Dodd — 4%
Native pragmatism re a Democratic presidential candidate and a new president who is is absolutely well-qualified to be the the country’s next chief executive sure points this Green-Dog Democrat toward Richardson.
None are so blind as those who will not see that it ain’t just Clinton, Obama, and Edwards running.