These tables don't turn

John Cole, noting the sudden "don't cross me, Mahmoud!!" statement from Hillary, asks a really damn good question:

Are the roles reversed anywhere else in the civilized world- is there some place where candidates, on their respective national television channels, play out their war fantasies in which they nuke the United States?

What's amusing about this is that even Iran doesn't make this kind of threat. Most they say referring to the US is "if you invade us, we'll make you regret it", and that comes out of a position of fear and weakness anyway, akin to threatening to throw a sock at someone if they don't stop beating your wife.

(cross-posted to Psychopolitik)

Consider what you would think and/or do if you were at the receiving end of what you're dishing out.

I dunno about you, but if I were Ahmadenijhad I'd be thinking "y'know, maybe I should go ahead and build nukes. They're not invading North Korea...". Of course, I'll probably end up on a no-fly list for posting that, but whatever, don't have money for plane tickets anyway.

Why is this so hard to figure out?

where I noted Clinton proposed extending a Nato-like security umbrella to the middle east, etc... and that no one really followed up on what I considered to be a tongue-dropper. When it was finally followed up on a few days later, that's when clinton starting spouting off about nuclear retaliation on Iran...