Dems pledge aggressive diplomacy in Iran

(CNN) – Democratic presidential candidates pledged new approaches to Iran, promising diplomacy with America's enemies.

Sens. Joe Biden of Delaware, Hillary Clinton of New York, Barack Obama of Illinois and former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina responded to a question posed by an Iraq war veteran and his mother, both worried he would be called back to duty, but in Iran.

"What I think is most important is that we have aggressive diplomacy with Iran," Clinton said. "I believe that the Bush administration has allowed this situation to worsen and fester because they won't have any diplomatic relations of any sort with Iran."

President Bush recently declared the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization that proliferates nuclear weapons, which the candidates strongly opposed.

"We've seen this movie. We know how it turns out," Edwards said. "I think it is absolutely crucial for Democrats on this issue to show real strength, real backbone and stop this president from moving forward on Iran."

Biden, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman, explained that declaring the Guard a terrorist organization hurts Americans personally.

"It convinced the rest of the Muslim world this is really a war against Islam and not a war in Iraq," he said. "It caused the price of oil to head to a hundred dollars a barrel."

Obama, who missed the Senate vote due to campaigning, explained to the veteran, "It's not just going to have an impact, in terms of potentially having a war against Iran; it also gives this administration an excuse to perpetuate their failed strategy in Iraq. And that could mean that you could be redeployed in Iraq."

It was Biden, though, who provoked the biggest audience applause when he took a strong stance on the president and Iran.

"If he takes the country to war in Iraq (sic) without a vote of Congress, which will not exist, then he should be impeached."
Biden at the time was speaking about Iran, not Iraq.

– CNN Contributor Adam P. Levy