Posted on 07/19/2011 5:12:08 AM PDT by Evil Slayer
Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain said Monday he would attack Iran to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons or to respond to aggression against Israel.
Asked if he agreed with former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton’s contention that the “only realistic alternative … is to use force preemptively against Iran’s nuclear weapons program” since diplomacy has failed, Mr. Cain said he did, with one caveat.
“There would be some other pieces of information I would need before I gave that order, but I’m saying that would be Option B,” Mr. Cain said during an interview with editors and reporters at The Washington Times.
“Option A is, ‘Folks, we are not going to allow you to attack Israel‘ … If they call my bluff, they already know — they will know — what Option B is.”
Mr. Cain said that, as commander-in-chief, he would “make it crystal clear [that] if you mess with Israel, you’re messing with the United States of America,” but stressed that his “Cain Doctrine” would not be a “blank check” for Israeli military action.
“There will be a set of conditions and circumstances that I will work with Israel on for them to understand that they cannot abuse that doctrine,” said Mr. Cain, a former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza.
However, if Israel is ever attacked first by Iran, he said he is “not going to sit back and get a vote from the United Nations as to what we ought to do.”
“If they [Iran] start lobbing rockets and stuff over at Israel, then we’re going to shoot back with Israel,” he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
That’s right - Reagan understood that the best way to keep peace is to show strength and the resolve to use it if necessary. That’s the only thing that works with evil enemies, and that’s also what Herman Cain knows. He’s cited Reagan before regarding that fact.
Also, whether folks like GW or not, it was that same perception that scared Khadaffi into giving up his nuke program at the time.
“But it’s quite easy to overestimate Israel’s military capabilities.”
The statement you replied to is a Ron Paul policy, he’s repeated it ad nauseum. Paul isn’t fond of Israel and really doesn’t care if they can defend themselves or not.
Go Herman Cain!!! This guy rocks!!! Finally a candidate that has some balls to put it on the line. No PC BS dance around the issue of the middle east and islam. Just straight up where he stands. You gotta love that. Thank you Mr. Cain for honesty in your stance. This guy is refreshing in his frankness on the issues.
Peace through strength!
Some people don’t understand that, but Reagan did, and Herman Cain also understands it, and will show strength as POTUS.
As would Palin and Bachmann.
Herman Cain, unfiltered Republican.
I agree with you on Paul, but the spending has got to stop. I support Israel, but unless they become a US sovereign state or territory, we simply can’t afford to defend them. At some point a real threat to our sovereignty is going to emerge: a Hitler or Stalin that actually has the means and the funds to threaten our self determination. At that point, I’d hate to not be able to defend ourselves because we blew all of our money and credit on Saddam Hussein, Qadaffi, Milosevich, and this idiot in Iran that never had any plans or means to overthrow our constitution.
And Iran isn't the only problem. Saudi Arabia is starting a nuclear program in response to Iran. In a few years, giving terrorist groups nukes to use on the US becomes a perfectly logical action. When an American city goes boom, who do we blame? And even if we can assign blame with our technology, might an enemy leader question this and our resolve to kill millions of civilians in response to an attack by a group whose ties to any regime are questionable?
In retrospect, Japan was insane to attack us, but not at the time.
Allowing Iran to get the bomb is equally insane for America.
Thank you, thank you for both those excellent replies. You saved me time and energy - I get weary of defending and trying to explain, sometimes.
Again, well said.
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