A War Weary America Gives Romney’s Cowboy Diplomacy Redux a Rousing Thumbs Down

Last updated on February 9th, 2013 at 06:53 am

The sustained use of mood altering constituents or behaviors despite adverse dependency or neurological impairment is addiction, and the habits and patterns associated with it are characterized by immediate gratification (short-term reward) coupled with deleterious long-term costs. Republicans have myriad addictions, but chief among them is world domination. It is no surprise then, that the Republican candidate for president, Willard Romney, a man whose religion informs a Mormon president initiates the religion’s world domination, combines the Republican addictions into one catch-all disorder; religious world domination.

Romney has garnered a reputation as an arrogant elitist and control-freak extraordinaire, and he projects that dysfunction on America every time he says, “the 21st century must be an American century” and that it is America’s responsibility to steer the world towards “the path of freedom, peace, and prosperity.” In a foreign policy speech yesterday, Romney outlined his plan to steer the world according to America’s will, and it can be summed up in two words; cowboy diplomacy, especially in dealing with Muslim countries. It is little wonder Romney parroted the Bush neo-con plan for the Middle East that includes interference in Muslim nations’ internal affairs, perpetual war, and foreign policy dictated by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

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Romney’s foreign policy problem is rooted in his neo-con advisors from the Bush administration and his pledge of obedience to Benjamin Netanyahu, and it portends multiple wars in the Middle East dependent on direction from Israel’s Prime Minister. Experts on addiction warn that addictive personalities often only need one or two instances of immediate gratification before they are forever bound to the dangerous behavior resulting in long term injury and devastating costs. Bush neo-cons only took America into two wars against Muslim nations, but it was just enough to get them hooked on pre-emptive war and imperialism that has cost America thousands of lives and over $4 trillion dollars with no end in sight. Since Romney is desperate to display foreign policy credibility with conservatives, he enlisted Bush warmongers for advice and gave his ear to Israel’s neo-con leader Netanyahu.

Pundits accuse Romney of changing positions on issues at the same rate most Americans change their non-magic underwear, but when it comes to protesting to send Americans to fight and die while his family hides behind the Mormon religion, he has remained steadfast. Romney’s warmongering speech at Virginia Military Institute was rife with accusations that President Obama was weak on foreign policy, but he did little more than show Americans he is still groping for specifics that are not founded in lies and talk of war. Throughout Romney’s speech, he projected hegemony and bluster that embroiled America in two wars, and typical of a Willard speech, it was mendacious and non-specific.

One of the Romney’s lies was that drawing down combat forces in Afghanistan would abandon “the Afghan people to the same extremists who ravaged their country and used it to launch the attacks of 9/11,” but it was not the Taliban who launched the terror attacks on America, it was Al Qaeda. Romney also parroted a quote from George W. Bush that he would “use America’s great influence to shape events in ways that secure our interests, further our values, and make the world better;” translation, “If you’re not with us, you’re against us,” and for nearly eight years it cast America as a bully in the eyes of the world. Romney plans to perpetuate “America as a bully” when he said he would push NATO allies to “devote 2 percent of their GDP to security spending” at a time when member nations are struggling in a down economy brought on by Bush-Republican economic folly and deregulation.

Romney spent a fair amount of time blubbering on about America’s commitment to funding Israel’s military by working “with Israel to increase our military assistance and coordination,” and to convince Americans they “must have confidence in our cause, clarity in our purpose and resolve in our might” that no friend of America will “question our commitment to support them… no enemy that attacks America will question our resolve to defeat them… and no one anywhere, friend or foe, will doubt America’s capability to back up our words.” To that end, Romney said he will “organize all assistance efforts in the greater Middle East under one official with responsibility and accountability to prioritize efforts and produce results,” and based on Romney’s statement during the Republican primary, that official is Benjamin Netanyahu. Romney said, “I’d get on the phone to my friend Bibi Netanyahu and say, ‘Would it help if I said this? What would you like me to do?” It cannot be overstated or repeated often enough that his foreign policy is not furthering peace in the Middle East, but expanding “our ties to Israel and our abiding commitment to its security.”  Apparently, funding 21% of Israel’s defense budget is insufficient and one wonders how much more Americans are expected to sacrifice to prove America is committed to Israel.

Romney claimed he would “recommit America to the goal of a democratic, prosperous Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security with the Jewish state of Israel,” but in the secretly taped video where he labeled 47% of Americans parasites, he said “I look at the Palestinians not wanting to see peace, so what you do is kick the ball down the field and hope that ultimately, somehow, something will happen.” During his speech yesterday, Romney criticized the President’s Middle East policies and said “hope is not a strategy,” unless it is said in secret to multi-millionaire campaign donors. The truth is that Romney has no policy to promote a “prosperous Palestinian state living side by side with Israel,” and it is more proof Romney is devoid of foreign policy his advisors complained leaves them confused as to which camp he is in.  Last week a Romney advisor said, “As messy as the world looks, it’s not voters’ primary concern,” but a new survey found a majority of Americans (55%) do not support an Israeli attack on Iran and 53% said America should stay neutral.

Americans are weary of war, and after two unnecessary and extremely costly neo-con forays to “shape events in ways that secure our interests, further our values, and make the world better,” Romney is saber-rattling, promising to increase military spending, and sucking up to Israel parroting rhetoric he proffered in his previous foreign policy speeches. It was a promise to return to Bush cowboy diplomacy from a cowardly draft dodger who believes sending other Americans to die to further the neo-con dream of American imperialism and Mormon domination equates to American exceptionalism. It also portrays Romney as a hapless foreign policy backwater and Netanyahu lap dog.

If Romney is so intent on feeding the neo-con addiction to hegemony and doing Netanyahu’s bidding in the Middle East, his first action if he wins in November is enlisting his sons in the U.S. Army, give them a supply of magic underwear, and march the five of them into Tehran to show the Mullahs and Ayatollahs America’s “resolve to defeat them” so that “no one anywhere will doubt America’s capability to back up our words.” If he is unwilling to do that, then he needs to shut his lying mouth and crawl back to his Cayman Island tax haven to count his money, and while he is counting, he should ask Al Qaeda for their appraisal of his contention that President Obama is weak on terrorism, or survey Osama bin Laden’s wives to get their take on just how resolved this President is to kill America’s enemies.

Rmuse

Audio engineer and instructor for SAE. Writes op/ed commentary supporting Secular Humanist causes, and exposing suppression of women, the poor, and minorities. An advocate for freedom of religion and particularly, freedom of NO religion.

Born in the South, raised in the Mid-West and California for a well-rounded view of America; it doesn’t look good.

Former minister, lifelong musician, Mahayana Zen-Buddhist.