John McCain was recently asked a valid question concerning American companies trading with Iran. If we're doing our best to stop their nuclear ambitions, why are we still trading with them? The reporter specifically zeroed in on our trading 150 million dollars of cigarettes with Iran. McCain didn't have an answer but did offer this: "Well it's one way to kill Iranians". And he laughed with that look of, did you get what I said? Anyone out there we don't like, you can count on me being tough.

This could be our next president, and he's talking like this. I realize he said he was joking, but I'm not so sure. The simple fact that a candidate can so blithely joke about death because we don't like what a country is doing has to make you stop and wonder what kind of mindset the man has. Yes, we may someday have to go to war with Iran, a country that has sponsored terrorism, and I certainly don't want them developing nuclear weapons, but killing doesn't have to be our first thought in dealing with them.

Hearing him make this statement gave me the uneasy feeling that have we become so engulfed by the threat of terrorism we can only think of our problems being solved by someone else being dead. Most Iranians really don't hate us from what I've read. Being gleeful about them getting lung cancer because of what their government is doing doesn't seem right. It's easy to pass this off as a throwaway remark, but it's unbecoming a candidate for president.

His remark reminds me of a statement by the Confederate general Stonewall Jackson when asked about the Yankees. "Kill 'em. Kill 'em all," he replied. Even in the midst of a war that should send a shudder down your spine. Any time we see people we disagree with this way, it should give us pause.

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