Democratic keynote speaker Barack Obama calls for missile strikes on Iran

[UCLA Dem]

First posted by Aidoneus (but it was cut from the latest breaking forum)

Democratic keynote speaker Barack Obama calls for missile strikes on Iran
By Tom Mackaman
1 October 2004

In an interview with the editorial board of the Chicago Tribune published September 26, Democratic Senate candidate Barack Obama said he would favor the use of “surgical” missile strikes against Iran if it failed to bow to Washington’s demand that it eliminate its nuclear energy program. Obama also said that, in the event of a coup that removed the Musharraf regime in Pakistan, the US should attack that nation’s nuclear arsenal.

Obama, the keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention, is being hailed as a “rising star” in the Democratic Party. In his Tribune interview, he said explicitly what is implicit in repeated statements by Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry and other party leaders. They have frequently attacked the Bush administration’s policy in Iraq on the grounds that it is diverting attention from supposedly greater threats, in particular Iran and North Korea.

Obama told the Tribune, “he big question is going to be, if Iran is resistant to these pressures, including economic sanctions, which I hope will be imposed if they do not cooperate, at what point are we going to, if any, are we going to take military action?”

Answering his own question, Obama said, “I hope it doesn’t get to that point. But realistically, as I watch how this thing has evolved, I’d be surprised if Iran blinked at this point.”

Obama advanced a racist argument for attacks on Iran and Pakistan. Making a comparison between the “Islamic world” and the Soviet Union, he argued that the religious outlook of Iranians and Pakistanis made them less prone to compromise and reason and more warlike.


--snip--

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/oct2004/obam-o01.shtm...

Hey everyone, we should write to this publication and let then know we object to their misleading headline!!!

[xray s]

1. don't bother writing them

the headline is meant to be misleading.

this is bullshit.

[UCLA Dem]

2. jerks

[bloom]

3. Maybe -

but I still worry that the Democratic party is encouraging the idea of preemptive strikes.

I really don't want the PNAC agenda to become normalized.

[RoyGBiv]

4. The Original Article

Posted by several others in that other thread, I think this needs to be included as well:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0409250111sep25,1,7098310.story?coll=chi-news-hed

U.S. Senate candidate Barack Obama suggested Friday that the United States one day might have to launch surgical missile strikes into Iran and Pakistan to keep extremists from getting control of nuclear bombs.

Obama, a Democratic state senator from the Hyde Park neighborhood, made the remarks during a meeting Friday with the Tribune editorial board. Obama's Republican opponent, Alan Keyes, was invited to attend the same session but declined.

Iran announced on Tuesday that it has begun converting tons of uranium into gas, a crucial step in making fuel for a nuclear reactor or a nuclear bomb. The International Atomic Energy Agency has called for Iran to suspend all such activities.

Obama said the United States must first address Iran's attempt to gain nuclear capabilities by going before the United Nations Security Council and lobbying the international community to apply more pressure on Iran to cease nuclear activities. That pressure should come in the form of economic sanctions, he said.

[geek tragedy]

5. The Swiftvets called. They want their credibility back. eom

[gottaB]

6. What would the WSWS say about Pervez Musharraf?--

That's rhetorical. Actually I don't care what they would say because they are full of shit.