Giuliani hits Democrats on Iran

Giuliani has said that Iranians need to understand that "America will not allow them to become a nuclear power" and criticised Democrats for opposing President George W. Bush's tough stance on Iran.

Nor does he concede that Democrats might have genuine concerns and differences over Bush's inflammatory policies towards another Middle Eastern country, he simply sees it that, "no matter what the president says they would criticise it."

Giuliani said he hoped sanctions would work "but the military option is not off the table and the Iranians should understand that, that America will not allow them to become a nuclear power."

"Their regime is too irresponsible. The world would be in too much danger," he said.

There have been some who have argued that the US is not planning to attack Iran and yet it is noticeable that it is Iran - and any future action against it - that is dominating the positioning of the rivals for the Republican Presidential nomination rather than any stance towards the Iraq war.

Giuliani fears that he might be perceived as being too "liberal" for the Republican base which has led him to make a series of increasingly bizarre claims in order to placate them, the most recent of which was his astonishing assertion that an act of torture isn't defined by the act itself but, rather, by who is doing that act.

And, even amongst the Democrats, it is the subject of Iran which is causing fault lines which define the candidates much better than the Iraq war.

Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards again skewered Clinton for having voted for a Senate resolution that recommended the State Department declare Iran's Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization, a vote that preceded Bush's move by several weeks.

"When Senator Clinton voted to declare Iran's Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization, she only aided and abetted George Bush and Dick Cheney's march to war," Edwards said.

Another Democratic candidate, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, has made similar charges against Clinton. Clinton says her vote was aimed at encouraging diplomacy in dealing with Iran, not war, and in a memo sent to reporters, the New York senator's campaign took aim at Obama.

"Stagnant in the polls and struggling to revive his once-buoyant campaign, Sen. Obama has abandoned the politics of hope and embarked on a journey in search of a campaign issue to use against Sen. Clinton," the memo said.

So, again it is Iran that even the Democrats are fighting about.

Giuliani is seeking to make the Democrats appear weak by hardening his stance towards Iran to make it more in keeping with the hardliners of the Bush administration.

However, as I've talked about before, the majority of Americans are vehemently opposed to any US military action against Iran:

This desire for diplomacy is particularly apparent in public attitudes on the spread of nuclear weapons. As far as the vast majority of Americans are concerned, military force is "off the table" in dealing with Iran's nuclear program and its possible meddling in Iraq. There's also been a sharp drop in public confidence in military force as a tool for dealing with other countries developing weapons of mass destruction—even though controlling the spread of nuclear weapons is the public's top policy priority and one of its major fears.

So, despite the American public having tired of Bush's militarism, Giuliani has obviously decided that he has to promise more of the same in order to convince the Republican base that he is actually one of them. To this end, he continues to bang the war against Iran drum.

At least when the Democrats argue about Iran it is merely to accuse each other of aiding and abetting Bush and Cheney's "march to war". They certainly don't sound like Giuliani who appears to be positively salivating at the thought of an attack on the Iranians.

This may excite the Republican base but I have a feeling that the American people are much nearer to the Democrats position on this than they are to Giuliani's.

UPDATE:

Here are the lengths Hillary is going to to explain why she voted for the Lieberman amendment.



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Tags: Giuliani, Republican Presidential nominees, Clinton, Edwards, Obama, Iran