Mitt Romney will call for an escalation of the conflict in Syria by arming rebels with the heavy weapons needed to confront president Bashar al-Assad's tanks, helicopters and fighter jets.
Romney is to make the proposal on Monday in what his campaign team has billed as a major foreign policy speech in Lexington, Virginia. In extracts published in advance, he opened up the prospect, if he becomes president, of a US-Iranian proxy war being fought in Syria.
He anticipated that the rebels will one day lead the country and the US should align itself with them, given the country's position at the heart of the Middle East. -- The Guardian, Oct. 8, 2012
more beneath the Boehner Orange® tumbleweed of foreign policy fail
Once again, Romney demonstrates his mastery of foreign policy. And why not? After all, his first foray into that potential minefield was such a stunning success.
Even before his feet left US soil, an anonymous Romney aide told a British newspaper:
We are part of an Anglo-Saxon heritage, and [Romney] feels that the special relationship is special. The White House didn't fully appreciate the shared history we have.
Unsurprisingly, this endeared Romney to nobody (except perhaps The Aryan Brotherhood and The Klu Klux Klan).
In his first 24-hours abroad, Romney managed to offend the United Kingdom, America's oldest ally; speaking as an 'Olympic expert', Romney suggested that British Olympic preparations were less than competent.
Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron responded by remarking caustically that "..putting on the Olympics in the middle of nowhere..." was easier than putting them on in London, one the world's great cities. This was a pointed dig at Romney's Olympic experience, which compromised winter games in Salt Lake city.
A raucous and insolent British press, which treats all politicians with disdain, splashed the headline 'Mitt The Twit' all over their front pages. As if that weren't enough, Rafalca, Romney's dancing horse (and $75,000 tax write-off) lost in its event.
In Israel, Romney told his audience that Jews are more successful than Palestinians because, culturally, Jews are better at making money. After that gem from Romney's Little Book of Offensive Cultural Stereotypes, I'm only surprised that Romney didn't add that the Chinese are 'inscrutable', Italians are 'emotional' and Africans have 'natural rhythm'.
While in Israel, Romney's foreign policy 'adviser' Dan Senor, a neocon loon, self-confessed liar and serial incompetent, said that Romney would support an Israeli strike on Iran. Horrified outcries from all points on the spectrum forced Team Romney to walk that one backwards, double-time.
And to complete the Mittastic Foot-In-Mouth Trifecta, at Poland's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Romney's traveling press secretary Rick Gortka responded to questions from the press in the thoughtful and diplomatic manner that the media had come to expect from Team Romney:
Kiss my ass. This is a holy site for the Polish people. Show some respect.
Master of Irony Gortka later called two members of the media to apologize for being a dick.
All of the foregoing, right-wing US 'pundits' agreed, gave Baby Jesus a major sad.
Now Romney wants to provide military support to armed rebels whose ideology we have very little information on, other than they are anti-Assad and therefore, someone you can use to fight "a proxy war with Iran."
It is, however, widely acknowledged by reporters on the scene (who, unlike 'pundits' deal in verifiable facts, not opinions) that a large component of the rebel forces are jihadists with ties to Al-Qaida.
Brilliant! What could possibly go wrong?
I mean, who cares about the potential of turning a civil war into a much larger regional conflict, involving the U.S, Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and Israel?
And who cares if Iran's ties to Russia make this dangerous in a much wider geopolitical sense?
And who cares about the potential for serious destabilization of the world's most important oil producing region, leading to the inevitable interruption of the oil-flow to an already tottering global economy?
Not Mitt Romney.
Perhaps someone should remind Romney of another Arab 'rebel' and 'freedom fighter' that America decided to support with cash and weapons; even as clueless a man as Romney may recognize the name: a Saudi businessman called...Osama Bin Laden.