"Power, money, persuasion, supplication, persecution -- these can lift at a colossal humbug -- push it a little -- weaken it a little over the course of a century; but only laughter can blow it to rags and atoms at a blast. Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand." -Mark Twain
"The political and commercial morals of the United States are not merely food for laughter, they are an entire banquet."
- Mark Twain
The transcript from which this quotation comes can be found here. The PBS reporter summarized Hill's forecast for Iraq thus: "In short, a war with great benefits, Hill insisted, and modest costs." WHOOPS!
Some other member of the Mayor's foreign policy team make Hill's Iraq stance look dovish, what with Nuke'em Norman Podhoretz and friends. And while Mr. Hill is quick to assure us Rudy's view is not necessarily Norman's view, Guiliani lately seems to be engaging in a rhetorical brinksmanship to match Podhoretz's jingoism: the Mayor recently said "If [Iran] get[s] to the point that they become a nuclear power, then we will set them back five years. That is not a threat, that is a promise." (It should be noted Mr. Hill still considers sanctions and diplomacy to be options still on the table.)
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