Marathon Pundit: McCain speaks to AIPAC about Iranian threat

Monday, June 02, 2008

McCain speaks to AIPAC about Iranian threat

This morning I watched the Fox News Channel's coverage of John McCain's speech to American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Clearly the presumptive Republican nominee "gets it" regarding the threat Holocaust-denier Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Iran presents to Israel, the Middle East, and the world.

"Without precondition," Barack Obama, wants to negotiate with this pariah regime.

Here's an excerpt from the Arizona senator's speech:

The Iranians have spent years working toward a nuclear program. And the idea that they now seek nuclear weapons because we refuse to engage in presidential-level talks is a serious misreading of history. In reality, a series of administrations have tried to talk to Iran, and none tried harder than the Clinton administration. In 1998, the secretary of state made a public overture to the Iranians, laid out a roadmap to normal relations, and for two years tried to engage. The Clinton administration even lifted some sanctions, and Secretary Albright apologized for American actions going back to the 1950s. But even under President Khatami – a man by all accounts less radical than the current president – Iran rejected these overtures.

Even so, we hear talk of a meeting with the Iranian leadership offered up as if it were some sudden inspiration, a bold new idea that somehow nobody has ever thought of before. Yet it's hard to see what such a summit with President Ahmadinejad would actually gain, except an earful of anti-Semitic rants, and a worldwide audience for a man who denies one Holocaust and talks before frenzied crowds about starting another. Such a spectacle would harm Iranian moderates and dissidents, as the radicals and hardliners strengthen their position and suddenly acquire the appearance of respectability.

UPDATE 11:05 CDT:

Der Iranian Fuehrer unloaded again today. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is not a resonable person.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad predicted on Monday that Muslims would uproot "satanic powers" and repeated his controversial belief that Israel will soon disappear, the Mehr news agency reported.

"I must announce that the Zionist regime (Israel), with a 60-year record of genocide, plunder, invasion and betrayal is about to die and will soon be erased from the geographical scene," he said.

"Today, the time for the fall of the satanic power of the United States has come and the countdown to the annihilation of the emperor of power and wealth has started."