I give Mitt Romney credit for smashing the image of Obama as the wise philosopher/god-king during the debate last Wednesday. Whether Obama wins or loses, people no longer look at him as a deity but just another politician. Romney has gotten a bounce in the polls and the race is back to toss up.
On Monday Mitt Romney gave a foreign policy speech to Virginia Military Institute. Instead of offering a new foreign policy based on economic interests and realism, he promotes the same failed Wilsonian policies that both Bush and Obama have promoted. His main theme was intervention in Syria.
Mitt Romney does not understand the situation in Syria. He views it as some revolt for democracy but that is not the case. The Syria conflict pits the Muslim Brotherhood and al-Qaeda vs. the Assad Regime, Iran and Hizb’Allah. The goal of the rebels is to establish another Islamic emirate then join up with other Islamist states like Egypt and form the Caliphate. That is their end game and the United States should not assist them in that goal. Disappointingly, Mitt Romney supports helping the Syrian rebels, despite acknowledging they are Islamists.
The president has also failed to lead in Syria, where more than — more than 30,000 men, women, and children have been massacred by the Assad regime over the past 20 months. Violent extremists are flowing into the fight. Our ally Turkey has been attacked. And the conflict threatens stability in the region.
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he greater tragedy of it all is that we are missing an historic opportunity to win new friends who share our values in the Middle East — friends who are fighting for their own futures against the very same violent extremists and evil tyrants and angry mobs who seek to harm us. Unfortunately, so many of these people who could be our friends feel that our president is indifferent to their quest for freedom and dignity. As one Syrian woman put it, “We will not forget that you forgot about us.”
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In Syria I’ll work with our partners to identify and organize those members of the opposition who share our values and then ensure they obtain the arms they need to defeat Assad’s tanks helicopters and fighter jets. Iran is sending arms to Assad because they know his downfall would be a strategic defeat for them. We should be working no less vigorously through our international partners to support the many Syrians who would deliver that defeat to Iran, rather than sitting on the sidelines. It’s essential that we develop influence with those forces in Syria that will one day lead a country that sits at the heart of the Middle East.
The war in Syria is not in America’s interest. Most Americans realize this and oppose involvement. Mitt Romney is taking neither a popular position nor the correct one. This is a pissing match between the Muslim Brotherhood/al-Qaeda against Assad/Iran/Hizb’Allah. Both sides are evil and we should stand back and let them kill each other. The Syrian rebels are doing well without us with the assistance they are receiving from Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Any weapons we give them will eventually be used against us.
Turkey is not an ally. They are ruled by the AKP who are an affiliate of the Muslim Brotherhood. Erdogan is a Neo-Ottoman and envisions a Caliphate led by Turkey. He is a bad character and as vile as Assad or the Ayatollahs. If Turkey wants to get involved in Syria they can do it on their own. Turkey’s goal is another Islamist emirate friendly to them and the Muslim Brotherhood. Today’s Turkey is not the same nation that was our cold war ally. That is outmoded thinking and we should not view them as a friend.
On September 11th 2001 we were attacked by al-Qaeda. They are an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. It would be an injustice to those who died on 9/11 to support the same organization and its ideological allies in Syria. In memory of the dead of 9/11, Mitt Romney should reconsider his stance on Syria.
Tags: Foreign Policy, Virginia Military Institute, Wilsonian Progressives
