The Nuclear Option

Via NY Times:

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has criticized Senator Barack Obama for saying he would rule out using nuclear weapons to root out terrorists in Afghanistan or Pakistan, made a similar comment regarding Iran last year, before she became a presidential candidate.

“I would certainly take nuclear weapons off the table,” Mrs. Clinton told Bloomberg Television in an interview in April 2006 [...]

Phil Singer, a spokesman for Mrs. Clinton, said she was responding to a specific news report at the time that the Bush administration was considering nuclear strikes on Iran. The context, he said, was different than the scenario raised last week by Mr. Obama.

“Senator Clinton was not talking about a broad hypothetical nor was she speaking as a presidential candidate,” Mr. Singer said.

Well, the "flip-flop" and double standard comments are sure to come soon. While nuclear weapons cause horrible consequences, it surely stops pretty much any nation from doing what they're doing. As much as I dislike saying it, Hillary Clinton is wrong in both of these cases. In Obama's circumstance, it is not a nation we would need to attack, it is a group hiding in mountains. Even a well aimed nuke would not stop a group that is not necessarily reliant on a command structure. If anything, an attack like that would show desperation and embolden our enemies. With Ms. Clinton's situation it is a nation, and I believe nothing should be removed from the table in that situation.