VP Candidates on Iran

In the October 11, 2012 Vice Presidential debate Paul Ryan said we should have done something when the Iranian mullahs were killing their own people. Martha Raddatz told us that last week former Defense Secretary Bob Gates said – a strike on Iran’s facilities would not work and could prove catastrophic, haunting us for generations. Ryan said this statement undermines our credibility if all options are on the table, we see distance with us and Israel and watered down sanctions, we have no credibility, the Ayatollah won’t back down, Iran is 4 years closer to getting a nuclear weapon and Congress in spite of the Administration put the sanctions in place and the Administration let Russia water them down. Martha said you saw the red line – Ryan replied - we can debate the time line whether it is longer or shorter – he thinks it’s longer – we want a peaceful solution but if we let Iran get a nuclear weapon other Middle East countries will do the same. Joe Biden explained the red line as being the point at which Iran would have the enriched uranium for a weapon but not the actual weapon and stated the President has repaired our allegiances so the rest of the world follows us again and he brought China and Russian together for the Iranian sanctions. I find it interesting that the Romney/Ryan ticket says it’s not too soon to speak up, advocates for a quick response (right or wrong) and yet thinks the timeline for Iran getting a nuclear weapon is longer than what Israel showed. Is this all smoke and mirrors on their part?  

On November 10, 2011 Mitt Romney said if we re-elect Obama, Iran will have a nuclear weapon and if we elect him (Mitt) they won’t have a nuclear weapon and he’s willing to go to war to keep Iran from getting nuclear weapons. He maintained this position until October 8, 2012 when he said he’ll impose tougher sanctions – won’t hesitate to impose new sanctions and would tighten the sanctions we currently have – as usual he didn’t say what he’d do differently. On September 25 the President of Iran in an interview in New York said it’s time to end what he called the American empire and said a new world order needs to emerge “away from American bullying and domination”. On October 3 we heard the Iranians were protesting their government because the value of their dollar has dropped 40% due to the sanctions orchestrated by the US; this is the first big protest since February 2011. And, on October 4 the US rejected Iran’s 9 point plan on nuclear processing based on a proposal made to and turned down by European officials in July.

Tomorrow I’ll give you information relative to Ryan’s comment about the mullahs killing their own people and that they themselves in 2010 thought bombing Iran could cause unforeseen problems as they too want a peaceful solution. Since Romney’s change in direction occurs after the US has impacted Iran I think this is just more of his BS to get votes. Thank God that Romney wasn’t President in the beginning of this issue – from his comments he would have overreacted.