The War Agenda of the Dark NeoCon Army Behind Mitt Romney

Last updated on February 8th, 2013 at 06:25 pm

Boom.

Ready for another war? Since the beginning of Bush’s horrific war against Iraq, Americans have by and large ignored the real results of the war. Everyone needs to stop ignoring it and wake up before it’s too late.

Mitt Romney’s foreign policy advisers are made up of 70% Bush Cheney regime war hawks. Romney is beating war drums against Iran right now on his overseas “I’m not a foreign policy novice and I’ll prove it by refusing to discuss my foreign policy but instead, bashing the President” tour. Oh, and he added insulting Britain to his UK charm offensive.

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Listen to Chris Matthews and his panel (Charles Blow and Joan Walsh) discuss the Bush Cheney regime behind Romney and tell me you’re not breaking out into a cold sweat:

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Chris Matthews: Look at the army of the night riding behind the presumptive Republican nominee. It’s an army of neocons for lack of a better word. They bring war with them in every election. An agenda of a country they want us to fight. People voted for W, they got Iraq. Why? Because the army poised behind the uninformed ill-read W knew what he didn’t. When 9/11 struck, they struck. This time it’s Iran.

But don’t think they’re going to end it there. These old cold warriors haven’t been happy since the Berlin wall fell. Listen to Romney’s words. He didn’t write them himself. He’ll say what it takes to get the right wing behind him. But the right wing will follow him right to the White House. They will grab the levers of military power like Rumsfeld and Cheney before them. And they will use them. You can bet on that…

They have nothing else to do but get jobs in a new Republican administration every ten years or so, or 12 years in which they can push for their latest war agenda. They are absolutely consistent. Here’s the question. Who wins if Obama loses? Let’s start with Mitt Romney and his foreign policy team including noted neocon John Bolton. Willing to fight on every front. He was Romney speaking yesterday in unapologetic terms. That’s a phrase they love.

Mitt Romney: I am an unapologetic believer in the greatness of America. I am not ashamed of American power, and I am guided by one overwhelming conviction and passion. This century must be an American century.

Chris Matthews: He’s talking a bunch of former warriors. He’s talking about making it an American century through military power. What is going on here? Is this a scene from “Gone with the Wind” with the Southern rebels? Are these people nuts? Are he nuts for believing in that cause? Your thoughts.

Joan Walsh: The big winner in this is going to be Dick Cheney.

Chris Matthews: He’s back.

Joan Walsh: .. And Cheney is, you know, holding fundraisers for Mitt Romney. Mitt called him a person of judgment and wisdom. So you’re going to see Dick Cheney playing a role. John Bolton is going to have a huge role. He gets floated as national security adviser or even secretary of state, whom I think, is preposterous. And that whole phrase, the American century, goes back to the project for a new American century. Which was the blueprint for the Bush foreign policy and for the war with Iraq. So we’ve got those same people again. It’s something like 70% of his named foreign policy advisers come from the Bush/ Cheney regime.

Chris Matthews: The smartest in that crowd intellectually is bill Kristal and he’s been holding back. Maybe there’s a bit of a fear if you show too much face in this they’ll actually see you coming.

Charles Blow: Yeah. I mean, the problem is that most of America is exhausted by war. And that’s why it rarely comes up. It didn’t come up much in the midterms. It won’t come up much in this presidential cycle because we are just exhausted by it. And part of that exhaustion is a wanting to turn away. Part of it is that the people who fight the wars for America are not necessarily — that’s the different 1%.

..This is the 1% we like to ignore, we like to pretend we can go about our business and eat our fast food and live our lives out and not pay attention to the devastating effect it is having on our soldiers and America. We turn a blind eye to that. I think when people start to beat the drums of war as the Republicans are doing in this cycle that starts to scare some people.

When you hear the phrase this is going to be “an American century” you need to beware. Note, when you voted for W, you got Iraq. See, they do tell us in their own way that they have their sights set on a new war. They won’t come out and say “I’m going to find any reason I can to invade this country” – they couch it in phrases like “a new American century” and “we don’t apologize for America”, and then top it off with some reliable fear-mongering (insert whatever works). But for the most part, while they feed the exceptionalism to the base, they try to keep the war talk off of Main Street.

If you’re not hearing much about it it’s because they don’t want you to. Romney said “real Americans” don’t care what his Afghanistan policy is. Clearly Mitt Romney doesn’t talk to our troops much, but he’s friends with the owners of our corporate vigilantes, who stand to make much profit off of yet another war.

Republicans like to pretend they’re the party of the “troops”, but I talk to our troops often. Let me clarify, I talk to real people fighting these wars. I don’t just talk to the Generals. And they’re proud to fight for this country, but they’re damn tired. They want out of Afghanistan. Sure, this is a general statement – not a poll. But it’s a common theme. They tell me with grim faces, “I hope the President sticks to his withdrawal plan.”

There are a lot of reasons for their exhaustion, not the least of which is a decade of war – but some of it is being in this kind of war; a war you can’t “win” – a war that goes on and on. A war in which you are fighting children sometimes.

Republicans want another war. There will be one for certain if Romney is elected, and it doesn’t matter how they have to concoct it — they already got away with basing an invasion of a sovereign nation on one huge lie. They weren’t shamed or even embarrassed by that. They’ve never even apologized for it. They’ve never been held accountable for it; so they will do it again, only worse. That is the way of the authoritarian neocon.

How will Romney pay for the war after cutting taxes on the rich yet again? That is irrelevant. Remember, Bush kept the wars off of the budget. He left that clean up job to fiscally responsible President Obama.

Romney doesn’t need to pay for the war; he just needs to start it. Romney criticizes this President’s approach to Iran, but he doesn’t give us any specifics about what he would do differently. Let’s review: Under President Obama’s leadership, the United States gained the support of China, Russia, and other nations to pass the most comprehensive international sanctions regime that Iran has ever faced. The President also worked with Congress to pass the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions and Divestment Act, and signed additional sanctions hitting Iran’s central bank and oil revenues, targeting Iran’s entire financial system for the first time. These are stiffer sanctions than Bush used against Iran.

Does Romney tell us what exactly he would do differently? Exactly when would he order the first military action against Iran?

Don’t be fooled again. A vote for Mitt Romney is a vote for war with Iran, and you can kiss that withdrawal from Afghanistan goodbye.

Sarah Jones

Listen to Sarah on the PoliticusUSA Pod on The Daily newsletter podcast here.

Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.

Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.

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