Speaking on Fox News Sunday, former Governor and presidential hopeful Mitt Romney slammed President Obama’s current policy in the Afghan War, claiming that his use of a “specific timetable” on the war proved his “failed leadership.”
Romney’s attempts to position himself as somewhat more hawkish than Obama on Afghanistan, though a common go-to tactic for campaigns, seems to be running afoul of Congressional Republicans, many of whom are shifting away from John McCain style super-hawk positions to a more vague Obama-style hawkishness, even endorsing the president’s Afghan strategy.
The shift reflects overwhelming American opposition to the war, and while politicians by and large don’t seem comfortable opposing the war, Romney’s effort to make the war a campaign issue is a major gamble.
Romney’s closest rival in the GOP race, Rick Santorum, is staking out a somewhat less hawkish position, criticizing Obama but saying that the policy should be “commit to winning or let’s get out.” Of the other remaining candidates Newt Gingrich, usually a hawk on such matters, has termed the Afghan War unwinnable and Rep. Ron Paul has opposed it from the start.
Commit to winning or get out? The U.S. is involved in Vietnam2 and Vietnam3! Iraq and Afghanistan have demonstrated that the world's greatest army isn't.
As in Vietnam, guerrillas fighting for their country show their power. Someone should take Santorum aside and explain this to him!
Paradoxically, a Romney presidency offers more hope for peace than Obama's re-election. Recall that during Bush's tenure, there was substantial anti-war sentiment in Congress and Democrat-dominated media. Their vocal cords were paralyzed and their spines turned to jelly on March 20, 2009. For obviously partisan rather than principled reasons, antiwar sentiment would re-emerge if Romney were to win, and with Democratic control of the Senate, could well spell the end of the Afghan war.
More hawkish than Obama who put an additional 30,000 troops into Afghanistan? Wow, talk about misreading the popular mood! I guess somebody who believes that God's finally revelation to mankind occurred in 1831 in Elmira, New York, can come up with any sort of weird ideas.
The endless bloodletting and resultant body counts, both civilian and military, have no currency, bearing or relevance to the Republican hawk presedential hopefuls in their tortured syntax debating style. Body counts are incidental to how many poll points these politicians can rack up with their "wars of choice." Its time for the convening of a war crimes investigation and tribunal under the jurisdiction of an independent International Criminal Court (ICC).
The is all pre-election BS to fool the rubes. Both parties have a long history of this type of pre-election behavior but they know that the American people have the attention span of a gnat and will not remember that they are played like this every election cycle. This shift is not real. It is make believe. It is fiction told to calm any partisan with a capacity to think.
The only way to ensure a real shift is to replace the two parties. That's it. This is an issue of the Republican-Democrat political machine. If Americans want real change and want to put a stop to the increasing police state and the never ending war of terror we have initiated upon the world, the R-D political machine is going to have to be dismantled and destroyed with prejudice. That's the only way.
Replacing the criminal class with new faces every two, four, and six years is only a cosmetic fix, and a poor one at that considering the machine only allows made members of the two party fraud to ascend to the national spotlight. While the faces in front of the camera change, those in the background remain the same and the beat goes on.
Romney is such a Putz. I think it's pretty obvious that a large number of Republican voters also believe that. His own opinion of himself is over blown and self-righteous – strikes me as another one who believes, to his core (if he has one) that he is NEVER wrong – never makes a mistake – it's always somebody else's error.
But then, it's early…there's plenty of time for him to reverse his opinion – about anything/everything. Once he gets wind that the electorate really are tired of war, I 'spect he'll change is mind, again.
How many body bags later and trillons of dollars short did this guy show up to the party? To put it in other words: The war horse has long since left the barn.
If there is really a significant shift in the opposition the Afghan War amongst Americans Obama should take advantage of it and tell the American people the truth of what is going on, not only in Afghanistan but also Israel.. In doing so he might give peace a chance; earn his Nobel Peace Price after all and win a second term in the White House as well with – I am sure – an overwhelming majority.. There is also a significant risk involved, as he may invite assassination.