LIE OF THE WEEK: 08-03-2007

Senator Hillary Clinton on Senator Obama ruling out the use of nuclear weapons:

"Presidents should be very careful at all times in discussing the use or nonuse of nuclear weapons," Clinton said. "Presidents since the Cold War have used nuclear deterrence to keep the peace. And I don't believe that any president should make any blanket statements with respect to the use or nonuse of nuclear weapons."

THE TRUTH: This statement shows that Senator Clinton has not analyzed the situation at hand and is instead just taking the politically expedient path by following the precedent of the current and previous presidents in her statements. Our enemies in Afghanistan and Iraq are not countries and there is no way a tactical nuclear device can even be considered in these situations where our enemies hide among civilian populations. Therefore, no useful deterrence can be achieved in this regard (not to mention the fact that our enemies have not hesitated to take innocent civilian lives where it suited their goals and we need to significantly differentiate ourselves in this regard by showing that we value all life and are not willing to cause significant "collateral" damage for short-sighted goals.) The fact that Bush administration has proposed using "bunker-buster" nuclear weapons against deep caves in Afghanistan where terrorists are believed to be hiding is another example which has had a severe negative effect on our anti-nuclear proliferation efforts around the world. If we truly want to prevent nuclear proliferation and ultimately use of nuclear weapons, we need to lead by example and minimize our use of threats to use nuclear weapons, not just minimize actual usage.