Edwards blasts Hillary in Iran speech
Posted: Monday, November 05, 2007 2:33 PM by Mark Murray
From NBC/NJ's Tricia Miller and NBC's Abby Livingston
IOWA CITY, IA -- Edwards used his speech today on Iran to once again blast Clinton for her vote designating the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization.
After again apologizing for his own 2002 vote authorizing the Iraq war -- and railing against the Bush Administration for its “preventive war doctrine” -- Edwards turned to Clinton’s stance on Iraq. “With less than 60 days to go before the caucus, Sen. Clinton still has not given specific answers to specific questions,” he told the crowd at Richey Ballroom at the University of Iowa. “She will extend the war. I will end the war."
And he used her vote on the Iranian Revolutionary Guard to segue to his new policy on dealing with Iran, accusing her of playing along with the Administration. “Sen. Clinton is voting like a hawk in Washington and talking like a dove in Iowa and New Hampshire,” he said. “One of her advisers told the New York Times that was because she was shifting from primary mode to general election mode. Well, we only need one mode all the time, and that mode should be the same for the primary and general election, and that mode should be tell the truth mode.”
He also linked Clinton's vote to the neoconservatives who were instrumental in advocating war against Iraq: “Senator Clinton once again sided with Bush and the neocons, helping them rattle their sabers and build their case for another preventive war. It’s clear that Senator Clinton and I learned very different lessons from the run up to the Iraq war.
He used the remainder of his speech to run down his “five-point strategy to contain Iran and force the country to give up its nuclear ambitions and its support of terrorism and insurgent activity,” as phrased in the pre-speech release. Those five points are: 1) ending preventive war policies, 2) partnering with western European nations in economic sanctions against Iran, 3) enticing Iran to leave behind nuclear possibilities, 4) using multi-pronged diplomacy to interact with Iran’s leaders without being used for propaganda, and 5) drawing other major nations into discussions with Iran.
Also, in a press conference after the speech, Edwards opened the door to actions against Pakistan. “Our leverage with Pakistan is the fact that we provide millions of dollars of assistance to them of all kinds, and we should use that leverage to push Musharraf and the Pakistani government in the right direction,” he said.
