McCain and Obama Argue - Is Iran a Threat?

By Pamela Mortimer

John McCain and Barack Obama have been involved in a feud over foreign policy ever since President Bush told the Israeli parliament that a policy of appeasement is a "foolish delusion". Senator Obama believes that a summit meeting with the Iranian government would be in the country’s best interest and John McCain believes it’s a waste of time to meet with a government that has no intention of giving up nuclear weapons.

On Sunday night, Obama stated that Iran is not as much of a threat as the Soviet Union was before it disbanded. The statement drew fire from McCain and other critics.

"Iran, Cuba, Venezuela — these countries are tiny compared to the Soviet Union. They don’t pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us. And yet we were willing to talk to the Soviet Union at the time when they were saying we’re going to wipe you off the planet," Obama said.

"You know, Iran, they spend one-one hundredth of what we spend on the military. If Iran ever tried to pose a serious threat to us, they wouldn’t stand a chance. And we should use that position of strength that we have to be bold enough to go ahead and listen," he said.

Citing this theory, Obama has called for "unconditional direct talks between the U.S. and Iran", stating that the U.S. would have the upper hand. Obama has since changed his mind and offered that mid-level meetings should be responsible for setting an agenda and specific criteria before direct talks could take place.

McCain addressed the issue during a meeting with the National Restaurant Association on Monday. McCain claims that Obama doesn’t comprehend that a summit meeting with the President is the "ultimate form of diplomacy", one that should not be squandered on a nation that is "unrepentant about its pursuit of nuclear weapons, its desire to blow Israel off the map and its frequent attacks on U.S. soldiers in Iraq".

"Senator Obama has declared, and repeatedly reaffirmed, his intention to meet the president of Iran without any preconditions, likening it to meetings between former American presidents and the leaders of the Soviet Union. Such a statement betrays the depth of Senator Obama’s inexperience and reckless judgment. Those are very serious deficiencies for an American president to possess," McCain said.

"It is likely such a meeting would not only fail to persuade him to abandon Iran’s nuclear ambitions; its support of terrorists and commitment to Israel’s extinction, it could very well convince him that those policies are succeeding in strengthening his hold on power, and embolden him to continue his very dangerous behavior. The next president ought to understand such basic realities of international relations," he said.