Playing Politics on Iran

While John McCain talks tough on Iran in the first shots of the 2008 Presidential race, Hillary Clinton tries tacking to the right of President Bush on Iran but she's tacking left on nearly every other issue to offset her militancy on Iran.

To these two, everything is distilled down to politics. Every decision made is with politics in mind. There's nothing subtle about either Clinton or McCain, which I guess is a good thing. You know that they're going to do whatever is politically expedient and will assist them in the polls.

The problem is that trait doesn't serve the nation's national interests well when you put personal politics ahead of national security or domestic or foreign policy. It means that folks who depend on long term committments are left blowing in the wind because the moment the politics changes, so might the desire to fulfill the committment.

In other words, do we want a President who looks to the polls first and foremost before acting or do we want a President to do what he or she feels is the right thing based on all available information at the given point in time.

We saw that in 2004, where President Bush stood by his decision to invade Iraq, but his opponent Sen. John Kerry flipped and flopped on his Iraq voting position. We're now seeing him do the same thing on Iran - trying to triangulate a position that at once is both to the right and the left of the President. Figures.

UPDATE:
Not so much on politics, but related to the Iran situation nonetheless, ShrinkWrapped has more thoughts on the real and perceived dangers presented by Iran. Atlas Shrugs has more, including that Kerry is suggesting giving the Iranians the very nuclear materials needed to send them on their merry way to having the bomb.

UPDATE:
Asia Times has an intriguing article about Iran's geopolitical and imperial intentions towards its neighbors.

UPDATE:
Others posting on Kerry's comments, the Democratic backtrack, and Iran in general: The Jawa Report, Outside the Beltway, Protein Wisdom, Stop the ACLU, and Flopping Aces,

UPDATE:
Atlas Shrugs points out a very important statement made by President Bush today regarding Iran, its continuing hostilities towards Israel, and the US response.

"I am concerned when the country of Iran's president announces his desire to see that Israel gets destroyed. Israel's our ally. We're committed to the safety of Israel, and it's a commitment we will keep," said Bush.