Maybe the Mustache was right

The Raw Story | Edwards: 'Iran must know world won't back down'

A couple of years back, Tom Friedman cranked up his mighty Profunditron and blessed us with his weighty tome, "The World is Flat." The MOF was expounding about globalization, after exhaustive interviews with at least two Third World cabbies.

But if you take the title as metaphor for John Edwards' learning curve, it is actually pretty insightful stuff.

From a talk given by Edwards in Israel, which strikes me as damning in and of itself:

At the top of these threats is Iran. Iran threatens the security of Israel and the entire world. Let me be clear: Under no circumstances can Iran be allowed to have nuclear weapons. For years, the US hasn’t done enough to deal with what I have seen as a threat from Iran. As my country stayed on the sidelines, these problems got worse. To a large extent, the US abdicated its responsibility to the Europeans. This was a mistake. The Iranian president’s statements such as his description of the Holocaust as a myth and his goals to wipe Israel off the map indicate that Iran is serious about its threats.

Once Iran goes nuclear, other countries in the Middle East will go nuclear, making Israel’s neighborhood much more volatile.

Iran must know that the world won’t back down. The recent UN resolution ordering Iran to halt the enrichment of uranium was not enough. We need meaningful political and economic sanctions. We have muddled along for far too long. To ensure that Iran never gets nuclear weapons, we need to keep ALL options on the table, Let me reiterate – ALL options must remain on the table.

If you think of John Edwards as an anti-war candidate, this outburst may come as a surprise to you. If, on the other hand, you recall that John Edwards co-sponsored the resolution authorizing use of force in Iraq, this will be persuasive evidence of a dead-flat learning curve.

I am willing to listen to possible justifications/explanations. But for now, my objections to the "Breck Girl" epithet are on ice.