Personally, I would respect a presidential candidate more if they said that any decision to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities would be made by them in consultation with their national security team, rather than just giving a free pass to Israel to do as they please.
I certainly recognize that Israel is a sovereign nation that retains the right to make its own decisions about war and peace within the confines of international law. But they are also a recipient of a very large amount of U.S. foreign aid, and a decision to attack Iran (particularly when it has been openly blessed by the president of the United States) will have enormous consequences for American interests in the region.
I would be more comfortable with a candidate who said, if any attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities becomes necessary, the U.S. will take responsibility for it, and that Israel should cool its jets.
I don’t like Mitt Romney’s rhetoric and I don’t like his approach. There has to be some conditionality to any support of an Israeli attack on Iran, but Romney doesn’t provide any.
Romney has stated repeatedly that he doesn’t want to be critical of our foreign policy while he is traveling abroad. I don’t really have a pet peeve about that. I would not jump down his throat for being critical of some policies. But his rhetoric goes beyond criticism to actually undermining our foreign policy towards Iran. We are trying to prevent a war and Romney is urging Israel to start one.
I think that is dangerous and irresponsible and it violates his pledge to not criticize our foreign policy while he is abroad.
I also think it makes him look weak, as though he’s willing to play the role of Tony Blair to Netanyahu’s George W. Bush. Is Romney a poodle?
Through Romney, the neocons rise again. This empty suit is sewed with incendiary threads of past failed strategies. And far from finding his trip abroad funny, I find it frightening. Undermining our foreign policy abroad as it applies to the M.E. should be cause for a fast and furious putdown by the Obama admin.
“Iran rhetoric makes Romney look weak” is like saying “That dress makes you look fat.” No, sorry; your fat makes you look fat and Romney’s clumsiness, cluelessness, foolishness and weakness makes him look clumsy, clueless, foolish and weak.
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The difference lies in enrichment. Netanyahu and Romney are united no enrichment will be permitted. Obama and the P5+1 alliance agree enrichment for civilian use only. No enrichment is a non-starter for any diplomatic solution. Just ask President Abbas, Netanyahu moving the goal posts to avoid any peace negotiations. Notice another subtle change in word use by Peres, Romney and Netanyahu. Israeli rhetoric always blasted Ahmadinejad and his threat to wipe Israel off the map. Ahmadinejad is in deep trouble domestically and was put down by Ayatollah Khamenei. In 2013 a new president will be elected, so now Peres & Co. changed the wording from a mad Ahmadinejad to the crazy Ayatollahs and danger of a nuclear bomb.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
They would be much less foolishly provocative and stupidly brave if they knew the US was NOT holding their coats, pledged to their survival and safety.
And Muslim loons would have little or no reason to care about the US were we not in fact the “far enemy” backing up every move of their “near enemy.”
Is Romney a poodle?
Or a dressage horse!!
Perhaps it’s time to cut Israel loose and withdraw from the region.
Then if they decide to attack Iran the likely response will not involve us at all.
But think of all of the benefits we get from our alliance with Israel. Like…um…
Okay, well, think of all the times their soldiers have fought side-by-side with our own. Like…uh…
Um…
I’m of two minds about the London and Israel thing.
In the first part, what happens in London will probably stay in London. It might contribute to the “Romney is a dork” meme, but it isn’t going to matter much in the short run or the long run.
This bs with Israel, tho is another story. Proclaiming Jerusalem to be the capitol of Isreal is something altogether different.
There is a reason that “independants” are independants and not Republicans. Similarly, American Jews are not Israeli. If they wanted to be, they would have moved. They don’t follow the party line in lockstep, they don’t believe that every conflict should end in war and they don’t want the President to have his nose up Israel’s ass. This whole thing smells like a sop to the Xtian fundies.
This business is not going to go away. It will come back to haunt Romney. Among other things, politics is supposed to stop at the shoreline.
But BooMan, don’t you realize that this is finally going to be the year that the Republican Presidential candidate wins a large number of Jewish votes by being more hawkishly pro-Israel than the Democrat?
I know it didn’t work last time or the time before that or the time before that or the time before that, but doggone it, this is going to be the year.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
Yup, every four years, the single-digit percentage of American Jews who are right-wingers make this same push, and every four years, it works out the same way.
In other news, Latinos are a ripe constituency for the Republicans, because they have families and go to church. It’s only a matter of time!
Dibs on strapping him – tightly – to the roof of my car for a long, long road trip. I hear Tierra del Fuego is nice this time of year. Especially via Halifax.
True story: there is neither a road nor a rail connection between North and South America. All transport between the two continents is via air or sea. The mountainous, jungle terrain of southern Panama/northern Colombia is impassible.
Although the thought of someone trying, with Mitt Romney strapped to the roof, is not wholly unpleasant.
In Israel, Romney declares Jerusalem to be capital
Israel is NOT a sovereign nation. “Israel” is a Terrorist State. The Mother Of All Terrorist States. An utterly foreign occupier perpetrating an American Taxpayer financed and morally sanctioned genocide upon the indigenous descendants of the “biblical” Hebrew: the Palestinians. It has no “right” to exist, and this world will never know Peace until it does not.