Teresa Heinz Kerry says she is "outraged" that President Bush didn't react more forcefully to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's recent recommendation that Israel be "wiped off the map," saying that the way to deal with Iranian threats is by issuing "the strongest possible condemnations."
Re-adopting her husband's last name for a column in Thursday's Jewish Forward, Heinz Kerry complained:
"The Bush administration - which so often answers challenges with confrontational language - took this occasion to whisper. With the exception of America's ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, who denounced the remarks as "pernicious and unacceptable," the Bush administration explained those comments as if they had been uttered by a crazy relative - and then returned to its talking points on Iran's nuclear weapons program."
Heinz Kerry singled out Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for criticism, complaining she had offered no condemnation of her own. {Actually, Rice told ABC Radio's Sean Hannity that Ahmadinejad's comments were "completely outrageous" before adding: "Nobody thinks that the president of any civilized country should talk this way.")
But for Heinz Kerry, Rice's tough words were apparently not good enough. She's demanding, well - if not action - at least some more tough words.
"The only way to prevent the virus from surviving and spreading," the former Mrs. Heinz advises, "is to attack, killing it with the strongest possible condemnations before it has a chance to mutate and spread." |