McCain seems to think so:

Republican presidential candidate John McCain was asked about an Associated Press report that $158 million in cigarettes have been shipped to Iran during George W. Bush’s presidency despite restrictions on U.S. exports to that country.

”Maybe that’s a way of killing them,” McCain told reporters, smiling as he waited for a cheesesteak sandwich at the Primanti Brothers restaurant. His wife, sitting next to him at the counter, poked his back without looking up.

”I meant that as a joke,” McCain quickly explained.

Ha. Maybe McCain should have just waited for his sandwich - Primanti’s rocks, by the way - and had a nice big side order of zip it.

So OK; gaffe, maybe, failed joke maybe. But, notes Atrios:

But when it comes to joking about killing Iranians… just what is the joke? I appreciate that it was a failed attempt at a joke, but the underlying premise is…it would be funny to kill Iranians.

That’s some straight talk we can believe in, my friends.