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Dealing with Iraq and Iran
RD: What would unfold in those first 100 days of an Edwards administration?Edwards: I would spend a lot of time in the first 100 days traveling the world, not just speaking to leaders, but speaking to other people around the world. The world needs to hear the voice of America's new president. And the message should be that we in the United States of America don't just tolerate diversity, we embrace it. We embrace those from different cultures, from different faith beliefs, because it's the heart and soul of who we are. And the world needs to hear that from the president of the United States because right now they don't. They don't hear it and they don't think it.
And then the second thing I would do is start getting America engaged in some of these issues that are important to the world, but don't appear to be in the short-term interest of the United States so that they could see us as a moral leader, issues like genocide, the spread of HIV/AIDS, and what a lot of the experts refer to as "soft power." Those are places that America can make a real difference. And then I would, simultaneously with that, start meeting with leaders of Congress and proposing universal health care and a whole series of things to transform our energy economy.
RD: You spoke today about the need to bring our troops home from Iraq. Let me move next door to Iran. We obviously have what seems to be a growing problem dealing with the regime in Iran.
Edwards: Uh-huh. We do.
RD: What is your prescription for dealing with Iran, especially if they continue on the road towards nuclear technology and weapons?
Edwards: Well, we have leverage. We have leverage we haven't used. And specifically, the situation as I see it is that you have a radical president, [Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad, who uses a very bellicose rhetoric about the United States, about Israel, claims the holocaust never occurred, wants to wipe Israel off the map. But he's becoming increasingly isolated from his own people. He is politically unstable. The political elite in his country have deserted him. A lot of the religious leaders have deserted him. And he was elected on the notion that he was going to improve the economy and strengthen the middle class, and that's not happened.
So what I believe America should do, given that political situation inside Iran, is work -- particularly with the Europeans -- to put an attractive offer on the table to allow the Iranians to have civilian nuclear power with full inspection, with America controlling the fuel cycle, combined with an economic package because they're in economic trouble. That is on the carrot side. On the stick side, if they won't do it, then we need to make clear, America and the Europeans, that there will be economic consequences if they don't give up their nuclear arms program.
Already the banking institutions in Europe have been pretty tough on Iranian banks, but the governments have not. And the governments need to do the same. What we want to do is do everything in our power to isolate this dangerous leader from his people. And right now it's already moving in that direction. And they're already worried about the economy and the leaders in parliament just sent him a letter saying why aren't you dealing with the economy. And what I just proposed would make it clear to the people of Iran that we're interested in helping them. But this guy is an outlier, and I think that maximizes the pressure and creates the greatest chance of success.
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