That calamitous “caliphate” comment from Slick Mitt’s most recent ad is causing quite an uproar among anyone who knows anything about national security and foreign policy. The very first commenter on the YouTube page (please share far and wide) summed it up nicely: I’m Mitt Romney and I’m full of s—.” Unfortunately, but predictably and understandably, that comment has now been deleted. But one commenter
responded to my
earlier post and came to his defense.
“Muslims Against Sharia commend Governor Romney for clearly defining
the enemy and standing up to Islamist lobby and PC establishment.”
No doubt Muslims for Mitt will put this guy over the top, especially that very large anti Sharia contingent here in the U.S. Is Ann Coulter their guide?
It’s not just that Romney is dangerously ignorant of the facts, however. It’s
that Romney’s ignorance could get us killed. What’s missing from Mitt’s campaign
about this almighty caliphate? The word “Iraq.” In fact, Mitt never
talks about the worst foreign policy disaster in history. But really, just how clueless
is Mitt Romney on national security? Some oldies but goodies are circulating.
My favorite is the first one.
Romney: We Can Move U.S. Troops to Our Bases in Saudi Arabia.
Trying to smooth talk the voters into thinking he has an Iraq plan, Romney
claimed the United States “can have a presence in the region” without
permanent bases in Iraq because the U.S. “has bases in Saudi Arabia,
Kuwait and Qatar.” [Associated Press, 6/7/07]• FLASHBACK: U.S. Closed All Bases in Saudi Arabia in 2003. Romney
apparently forgot that President Bush withdrew virtually all U.S. troops
and closed all U.S. bases in Saudi Arabia in 2003, a gaffe that highlights
his lack of the foreign policy knowledge and experience. [Foxnews.com, 4/29/03]Romney Caliphate Rhetoric Completely Ignores Reality. “By
the time Romney, the tall, patrician former governor of Massachusetts, added
his thoughts, the complex web of movements and ideologies in the Middle East
had been simplified almost to the point of being nonsensical. ‘Violent, radical
jihadists want to replace all the governments of the moderate Islamic states,
replace them with a caliphate,’ he asserted. ‘And to do that, they also want
to bring down the West, in particular us. And they’ve come together as Shia
and Sunni and Hezbollah and Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda
with that intent.’ Never mind the fact that Shias and Sunnis were at that
very moment fighting a civil war in Iraq or that Hamas and Fatah were on the
verge of starting their own in Palestine.” [Texas Monthly, 8/07]Romney: Catching Osama “Insignificant,” Said It’s “Not
Worth Moving Heaven and Earth” to Capture bin Laden. In an interview
with the Associated Press on Thursday, April 26, 2007, Republican Presidential
Nominee Mitt Romney said, “the country would be safer by only ‘a small
percentage’ and would see ‘a very insignificant increase in safety’ if al-Qaeda
leader Osama bin Laden was caught because another terrorist would rise to
power. ‘It’s not worth moving heaven and earth spending billions of dollars
just trying to catch one person.’” [Associated Press, 4/26/2007]Romney Displays “Superficial” Knowledge on Iraq, “Never
Mentions Iraq” in Stump Speech. A Time Magazine column highlighted
Romney’s “superficial” knowledge of the war and other top issues
and blasted Romney for “the brazen cynicism of his candidacy,” saying
“he skims the surface of issues” in a stump speech that “never
mentions Iraq.” In fact, on a recent swing through New Hampshire, Romney
“cruised through two performances before the word Iraq perforated his
balloon.” When finally asked about it by a high school student, Romney
“offered a welter of details… which sounded sort of knowledgeable
but was actually quite superficial” before getting to the point: “he
would support the President.” [Time.com, 5/31/07]
But getting back to Romney’s ridiculous “caliphate” argument, what
else is bothersome about it? Maybe the fact that it mimics George W. Bush exactly,
who used it himself to prop up his disastrous policies in Iraq by stating the
evil guys want to “establish a violent political utopia across the
Middle East, which they call caliphate.”
Yeah, that’s exactly what we need, another CEO president who doesn’t know the
difference between a civil war between Shia and Sunni, and some grand religious
dream envisioned by bin
Laden’s inspiration Sayyid
Qutb.
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