Maybe we should just nuke the table

Clinton, Obama and the nuclear question.

Published August 9, 2007 7:56PM (EDT)

Hillary Clinton took Barack Obama to task earlier this month after he said that he thought it would be a "profound mistake" for the United States to "use nuclear weapons in any circumstance involving civilians" in Afghanistan or Pakistan.

"Presidents should be very careful at all times in discussing the use or non-use of nuclear weapons," Clinton said. "I don't believe that any president should make any blanket statements with respect to the use or non-use of nuclear weapons."

There's just one catch, and the Associated Press has caught it: Last year, amid talk that the Bush administration was considering a military strike on Iran, Clinton did pretty much exactly what she now says Obama shouldn't have done.

"I have said publicly no option should be off the table, but I would certainly take nuclear weapons off the table," Clinton said then. "This administration has been very willing to talk about using nuclear weapons in a way we haven't seen since the dawn of a nuclear age. I think that's a terrible mistake."


By Tim Grieve

Tim Grieve is a senior writer and the author of Salon's War Room blog.

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2008 Elections Barack Obama Hillary Rodham Clinton Pakistan War Room