Andrew Feinberg of “The Independent” asked Karoline Leavitt at Wednesday’s WH press briefing how the U.S. can claim the “moral high ground” while threatening to annihilate Iran’s civilization:

ANDREW FEINBERG, THE INDEPENDENT: So, regarding the president’s rhetoric: when the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003, George W. Bush said in a message to the Iraqi people that the military campaign was directed against the men who ruled your country and not against you. Yesterday, the president threatened to destroy Iran’s civilization-the entire civilization-not the Iranian government, but the Iranian civilization, the Iranian people. The U.S. has been a moral leader for most of its history by fighting wars against other governments, not against civilizations. How can the president claim that America can have the moral high ground if he’s threatening to destroy civilizations and not casting wars as fights against other governments? WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY KAROLINE LEAVITT: Andrew, I think you should take a look at the actions of this president over the course of the past six weeks, and the actions of our brave men and women in the United States military, who have essentially taken out the military of a rogue Islamic regime that has chanted death to America for 47 years, that has killed and maimed thousands of American soldiers over the course of the last five decades. The president absolutely has the moral high ground over the Iranian terrorist regime. And for you to even suggest otherwise is, frankly, insulting. ANDREW FEINBERG, THE INDEPENDENT: With all due respect, Karoline–

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