John McCain and the Iranian Cigarette Quote

John McCain, presidential nominee of the Republican Party, was once asked a valid question concerning American companies trading with Iran. The reporter specifically zeroed in on our trading 150 million dollars of cigarettes with Iran. McCain didn't have an answer but did offer this: "Well it's one way of killing Iranians". And he laughed with that look of, did you get what I said? Pretty good, huh? I'm tough. Anyone our there we don't like, you can count on me going after them guns blazing.

This could be our next president, and he's talking like this. I realize he said he was joking, but I'm not so sure. The simple fact that a candidate can so blithely joke about death because we don't like what a country is doing has to make you stop and wonder what kind of a mindset this man has. Yes, we may someday have to go to war with Iran and I sure don't want them having a nuclear bomb, but there are othe stops along the way. I can't believe everything has to be solved at the point of a baynonet, or the tip of a lit cigarette.

Hearing him make this statement gave me the uneasy feeling that have we become so engulfed by the threat of terrorism we can only think of our problems being solved by someone else being dead. Most Iranians really don't hate us from what I've read. Being gleeful about them getting lung cancer because of what their government is doing doesn't seem right. Makes you wonder how Senator McCaiin would handle other hot-button problems.

His remark reminds me of a statement by the Confederate general Stonewall Jackson when asked about the Yankees. "Kill 'em. Kill 'em all," he replied. Even in the midst of a war that should send shudders down your spine. Any time we see people we disagree with this way, it should give us pause.