General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhat's the connection: Mitt, the 1980s Iran hostage crisis and attacks in Libya
Josh Marshall posed a question about comments Mitt made related to Carter and the Iran (http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021371098) situation on the one of the videos released by Mother Jones.
After talking about it a bit, Mitt says: If something of that nature presents itself, I'll work to take advantage of it.
Remember, Romney jumped the gun. His response was to an embassy statement before the attacks, which were in conjunction with protest over an anti-Muslim film by an American RW pastor.
Given Mitt's reaction (almost as if he knew there were going to be attacks), and comments on the tape, something smells fishy.
The timing of his response also plays into the speculation because issuing it before all the facts were known, he failed to offer condolences to the families of the victims. It almost appears as if he had a statement prepared and was lying in wait.
Consensus: Mitt Romney Made A Fool Of Himself With Libya Response
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021327702
O.M.G. Mitt lost Newsmax!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021330307
Editorial boards across America savage Mitt Romney's bungled response to Libya attack
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021337712
Mitt Romney goes off the deep end with new defense of his embassy attack
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021342118
Now let's look at Mitt's foreign policy team and connect some dots.
by Meteor Blades
Mitt Romney stepped in it Wednesday and sank right up to the upturned edges of his pathetic smirk with his remarks about the Obama administration's response to the slaying of Americans in Benghazi. As Jed Lewison and Hunter have pointed out, he proved conclusively, in a manner clear to everyone from here to Timbuktu, that he is unfit morally and intellectually to be president.
But well before he tried to turn the cowardly attack on the U.S. ambassador and consular employees into a extension of his previous attack on Barack Obama as the "most feckless president since Carter," Romney had shown that he was not the guy sane citizens want to be answering 3 AM or 3 PM foreign policy phone calls. Most telling in that realm are Romney's choices for advisers in such matters, knuckle-dragging ultrahawks.
The roster is packed with George W. Bush retreads. Ari Berman took a look at them a few months ago and found:
Romney is loath to mention Bush on the campaign trail, for obvious reasons, but today they sound like ideological soul mates on foreign policy. Listening to Romney, youd never know that Bush left office bogged down by two unpopular wars that cost America dearly in blood and treasure. Of Romneys forty identified foreign policy advisers, more than 70 percent worked for Bush. Many hail from the neoconservative wing of the party, were enthusiastic backers of the Iraq War and are proponents of a US or Israeli attack on Iran. Christopher Preble, a foreign policy expert at the Cato Institute, says, Romneys likely to be in the mold of George W. Bush when it comes to foreign policy if he were elected. On some key issues, like Iran, Romney and his team are to the right of Bush. Romneys embrace of the neoconservative causeeven if done cynically to woo the rightcould turn into a policy nightmare if he becomes president.
Indeed. Heading up the list of those advisers is John Bolton. Romney's public statements reflect his views more than any other. Even though he didn't sign the 1997 mission statement of the Project for a New American Century, Bolton has been lockstep with those who did. That was the first major organization to state neo-conservative imperialist objectives nakedly, though neo-conservatives were well on their way to getting their hands on the levers of U.S. foreign policy with the second incarnation of the Committee on the Present Danger in 1976.
Nine of Romney's advisers did sign that PNAC mission statement and/or one of its several public policy letters. They are Paula Dobriansky, Vin Weber, Daniel Senor, Eliot Cohen, Eric Edelman, John Lehman, Donald Kagan, Robert Kagan and Aaron Friedberg. These guys couch their philosophy in the boilerplate of democracy, but they have never shied away from the term "imperialism." These guys have Romney's ear. These guys whose advice has cost so many thousands of lives of Americans and others are telling the GOP candidate that Russia (which they sometimes call the "Soviet Union" is the most important geostrategic threat to the United States. These guys tell us Iran should have been bombed yesterday. These guys want the Bush Doctrine times 10 to be the basis of U.S. policy abroad. They have no qualms about how to implement it. Torture? No problem. In their eyes, international law like the Geneva Conventions is a quaint relic.
- more -
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/09/13/1131292/-Romney-s-foreign-policy-team-is-jam-packed-with-neo-conservative-smirkers
The Mainstreaming Of Crazy Just Went Nuclear
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/when-psycho-pamela-geller-becomes.html
Pamela Geller's Blog Solicited Funds For anti-Muhammad Film
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021357666
Romney foreign policy team "a neocon revival committee pushing for another war in the Middle East"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021344498
ProSense
(116,464 posts)exploring the depths of Mitt's craven opportunism.
ProSense
(116,464 posts)ProSense
(116,464 posts)silvershadow
(10,336 posts)he is toast.
ProSense
(116,464 posts)smirking neocons on his foreign policy team are evil. In fact, I'm convinced Romney is one of them.
silvershadow
(10,336 posts)that he could not recover, the damage was done. Which is to say, just the last day or two.
Cha
(297,323 posts)Like your diving into your own shite on Libya, mitt? How did that work for ya?
Thanks for all this work on connecting the dots, ProSense. It seems like there will be more analysis to come on mitt's opportunistically dumb statements.