Belleville, Michigan– John McCain took questions this morning after stopping at a diner in Livonia, Michigan. He told reporters that Barack Obama refused to label the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as terrorists and reminded them that Obama was concerned about the U.S. looking too “provocative.” Obama said much the same thing yesterday, worrying that the U.S. take measures to avoid provoking Iran — this the same day that Iran test-fired long-range missiles. McCain was asked about Iran’s actions again today.
Q: What do you think is the motivation here on the part of the Iranians to do something that is so provocative? I mean what kind of signal are they trying to send? A: There’s an age old Persian ambition to have great influence and perhaps domination of the region. That’s been made apparent in many ways, particularly since the fall of the Shah of Iran. They’re sending the most lethal explosive devices into Iraq that are killing young Americans. They’re killing young Americans. That is because they want to have increased influence in Iraq, as well as the region. One of the benefits of the success and winning in Iraq which we are is that it will reduce and curb some of Iranian influence and ambitions for influence in the region. It is well known what their ambitions are, they’ve stated them many, many times. And it’s all part of that effort to increase their influence and control in the middle east. And that is generally agreed to by every Middle Eastern expert that I know.
Good answer. And McCain is smart to remind people about Iran’s support for terrorism. But this feels like a missed opportunity. Why not point out Obama’s proclivity to worry first about America’s provocation? Here is what McCain foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann said yesterday in response to Obama’s comments:
On a day when Iran launched up to nine ballistic missiles, and just weeks after an exceedingly generous multilateral incentive package was presented to the Ahmadinejad government, the fact that Senator Obama is concerned about avoiding “provocations” speaks far more about his world view than it does about the reality of the threat posed by Iran. Iran was not “provoked” into its missile tests any more than it was “provoked” into its calls for the destruction of Israel, its support for terrorism, its defiance of the international community on its nuclear program or its arming of extremists that have killed American soldiers in Iraq. Senator Obama seems to adhere to an ideology that worries more about how our legitimate actions are perceived by state sponsors of terrorism than about how to respond to the threat posed by a regime like Iran.
