Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani says Democratic front-runner Senator Hillary Clinton has not stated clear goals for dealing with the Iraq War and Iran's nuclear ambitions. The Clinton campaign disputed the accusation.
Based on Clinton's answers in recent debates, Giuliani said during a town hall meeting on Saturday that he cannot figure out her position on Iran.
"We're dealing with a level of ambiguity that I don't believe is a good sign in a would-be commander in chief in a time of war," said Giuliani, the former New York mayor who has positioned himself as the one Republican able to thwart another Clinton presidency.
In a debate late last month, Clinton refused to say whether she would pull all US troops out of Iraq by 2013, what would be the end of her first presidential term.
"It is very difficult to know what we're going to be inheriting," she said.
She also ducked a question about whether Israel had the right to bomb Iran if Tehran posed a nuclear threat. She called the question a "hypothetical," and said, "That's better not addressed at this time."
Giuliani said he has made it clear that he would not allow Iran to become a nuclear power and would not rule out military action to stop that from happening. He said the US must win the war in Iraq so that country "will act as an ally for us in the Islamic terrorist war against us."
"If you listen to Democrats and some people in the press, the whole reason we're in Iraq is to figure out how to withdraw," he said. "That's all they talk about. I don't know if they realize how counterproductive that is. I don't know if they realize how strategically irresponsible that is."
A Clinton spokesman said Clinton and Giuliani "fundamentally disagree" on this issue.
"Senator Clinton wants to end the war and bring our troops home," Howard Wolfson said in a written statement. "Mayor Giuliani wants to continue [US President] George Bush's war in Iraq with no end in sight."
Wolfson added that Clinton has taken the position that Iran must not be allowed to build or acquire nuclear weapons.
Three months before voting begins, polls show Clinton solidifying her advantage for the Democratic nomination while the Republican race remains fluid. Giuliani leads in national surveys, but Republican rivals Mitt Romney, former Massachusetts governor, actor-politician Fred Thompson, a former senator, and Senator John McCain are in strong contention in various key states.
Also on Saturday, another strong Democratic contender, Senator Barack Obama said at a campaign appearance in South Carolina that private security contractors in Iraq are raising the risk for US troops because Iraqis do not distinguish between the forces.
He also criticized the pay disparity between soldiers and private contractors, saying the contractors get paid nine times as much as those in uniform.
"You've got young men and women signing up to serve, willing to spill blood for America. How could they be treated less well than private contractors?" Obama told a crowd of more than 1,400 in Aiken.
"And these private contractors, they go out and they're spraying bullets and hitting civilians and that makes it more dangerous for our troops," Obama said.
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
Polish presidential candidates offered different visions of Poland and its relations with Ukraine in a televised debate ahead of next week’s run-off, which remains on a knife-edge. During a head-to-head debate lasting two hours, centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing pro-European coalition, faced the Eurosceptic historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS). The two candidates, who qualified for the second round after coming in the top two places in the first vote on Sunday last week, clashed over Poland’s relations with Ukraine, EU policy and the track records of their
‘A THREAT’: Guyanese President Irfan Ali called on Venezuela to follow international court rulings over the region, whose border Guyana says was ratified back in 1899 Misael Zapara said he would vote in Venezuela’s first elections yesterday for the territory of Essequibo, despite living more than 100km away from the oil-rich Guyana-administered region. Both countries lay claim to Essequibo, which makes up two-thirds of Guyana’s territory and is home to 125,000 of its 800,000 citizens. Guyana has administered the region for decades. The centuries-old dispute has intensified since ExxonMobil discovered massive offshore oil deposits a decade ago, giving Guyana the largest crude oil reserves per capita in the world. Venezuela would elect a governor, eight National Assembly deputies and regional councilors in a newly created constituency for the 160,000
North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the naval destroyer, state media reported yesterday. Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday last week’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the new destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Ri Hyong-son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident,” it said. Ri is the fourth person
RSS