Friday, August 03, 2007

Mitt Romney 's Hezbollah Moment

Mitt Romney really screwed up.

During a campaign stop in Iowa, he made an absolutely stunning statement:

”Did you notice in Lebanon, what Hezbollah did? Lebanon became a democracy some time ago and while their government was getting underway, Hezbollah went into southern Lebanon and provided health clinics to some of the people there, and schools. And they built their support there by having done so. That kind of diplomacy is something that would help America become stronger around the world and help people understand that our interest is an interest towards modernity and goodness and freedom for all people in the world. And so, I want to see America carry out that kind of health diplomacy…”

What was the governor smoking? Some Bek'aa Valley hashish?

Until 9/11, Hezbollah had the distinction of being the Islamist terrorist group with the most dead Americans to its credit, including the torture-murder of several US diplomats.Their `social welfare' scam is limited to those Shia who were prepared to become part of Hezbollah, by helping in operations, hiding weaponry in their homes or otherwise giving their allegiance to them. Touting Hezbollah for their social welfare efforts is akin to lauding Hitler because he provided employment,or Mussolini for getting the trains running on time.

The Romney campaign quickly backed away from the governor's remarks once he realized what had popped out, but they still show an unfortunate ignorance on his part on exactly whom our enemies are..as well as the fact that the US has been doing exactly what he suggests for some time now.

Whether it's a tsunami, AIDS care funding or humanitarian aid, the US is always one of the first ones on the scene..with little or no effect on support for Islamist terrorism. Is Governor Romney not aware of all this?

I'm sure Governor Romney's heart is in the right place, but this was still an astounding gaffe.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

If we go into a Muslim country and build something, for example a health care clinic, a new power grid, a school or anything else that might benefit the people, the terrorists will simply blow it up and through their stae controlled press they will blame the Americans.

In addition to this, if we vacinate Arab children to protect them against deadly diseases, the terrorists will slice off the arm where they vacinated on. As it stands right now, these people are simply beyond the help that Governor Romney wants to extend to them. All they understand is force. Once the forces of terrorism are completely destroyed we may be to work to reform their culture. Until then all we can do is defend ourselves.

If Governor Romney wants to build health care clinics for these people, the US will have to think like an imperial power. If we are going to pursue nation building operations, we will need to bring sufficient to actually subdue the enemies the Islamic extremists and we will need to stop thinking in terms of "exit strategies." We will need to make long range committments.

As it stands right now, the American people are fundamentally unwilling to make the kind of sacrifices that will be necessary to carry out the type of health care diplomacy that Governor Romney is wanting to do. As such, our only real option is to secure our borders, place a moratorium on immigration from Muslim lands, closely monitor the mosques, and develop more of our own natural resources.

These policies are something we can actually do and they give us a reasonable shot at defending our country. The type of health care diplomacy that the Governor wants to do is a policy we cannot implement right now. Btw, I would expect the media to oppose the policies I suggest but the American people will likely support them.

Freedom Fighter said...

Hi B,
As I said, we're already performing the kind of actions Romney is suggesting..ain't nothin' new!

What is new is his holding Hezbollah up as a `social welfare' organization...even his campaign realizes it was a dumb thing to say...