Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has written an op-ed piece about what’s wrong with President Barack Obama’s Middle East policy and what he would do if he is elected president. There aren’t many surprises but it reminds us how far Romney has to go before he can be said to have articulated a clear foreign policy of his own.
Romney lists five crises in the region that he feels place U.S. security at risk and that are neglected by Obama: the Syrian civil war; Muslim Brotherhood takeover in Egypt; murder of the U.S. ambassador to Libya; violent protests at U.S. embassies; and Iran’s continued progress toward having nuclear weapons as it continues to promise to annihilate Israel.
Romney continues: “Yet amid this upheaval, our country seems to be at the mercy of events rather than shaping them. We’re not moving them in a direction that protects our people or our allies.” These crises, however, could pull America into serious conflict.
The problem, he says, is that Obama’s policy “has allowed our leadership to atrophy…by a president who thinks that weakness will win favor with our adversaries….[By] stepping away from our allies, President Obama has heightened the prospect of conflict and instability. He does not understand that an American policy that lacks resolve can provoke aggression and encourage disorder.”
He criticizes Obama for misreading the “Arab Spring,” moving away from Israel, and lacking sufficient credibility to deter Iran. He also speaks of “using the full spectrum of our soft power to encourage liberty and opportunity for those who have for too long known only corruption and oppression.”
Romney calls for restoring the strength of America’s economy, military, and values. “That will require a very different set of policies from those President Obama is pursuing.”
Such an approach is acceptable for a short op-ed but hardly constitutes a foreign policy strategy. Aside from people noticing on their own that Obama’s policy is disastrous, Romney is going to have to do better if he thinks that the Middle East issue—or any international issue—is going to gain him support.
But what does Romney plan to do on these issues? While some of this can be expected to surface in the debates, he has not yet articulated a serious foreign policy plan with a little more than a month to go before the election. That’s extraordinary.
There are answers about what he should be saying which I have discussed in many previous articles and won’t take your time with now. An inspiring and persuasive alternative to Obama policy could be articulated.
But I am getting the feeling that either his campaign is thin regarding expertise on the Middle East or that those people are not being listened to by those higher up. It’s understandable that Romney might feel only the economy matters. Yet he is going to have to show that he could be a successful president internationally as well.
The process of doing so has not even begun and it is now late in the campaign.
Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal. His latest book, Israel: An Introduction, has just been published by Yale University Press. Other recent books include The Israel-Arab Reader (seventh edition), The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East (Wiley), and The Truth About Syria (Palgrave-Macmillan). The website of the GLORIA Center and of his blog, Rubin Reports. His original articles are published at PJMedia.
@ Bernard Ross: Mr. Ross:
I found Patrick Pooles’s article on the Muslim Brotherhood Project at the following URL:
http://archive.frontpagemag.com/readarticle.aspx?artid=4476
I found a translation of The Project documents at”
http://archive.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=4475
I don’t know why these are changed from the links I supplied heretofore. Try these links and if they don’t work for you, let me know.
@ Wallace Brand:Thank you for your informative post. I went to your frontpagemag link and got a blank comments page.
I think Romney should quote Matthias Kunzel just as Bibi quoted Bernard Lewis in his speech to the UN General Assembly
Antisemitism, Messianism and the Cult of Sacrifice: The Iranian Holy War
http://www.matthiaskuentzel.de/contents/antisemitism-messianism-and-the-cult-of-sacrifice-the-iranian-holy-war
Obama and the Muslim Brotherhood
Obama contributed to the revitalization of the Muslim Brotherhood in this New Course for the Middle East (an op ed in the WSJ by Mitt Romney) despite the evidence found in Virginia of their attempt to subvert the Federal Government from within and despite evidence of a 100 year plan for world domination of sharia law found by Swiss authorities in 2005. It is impossible to think that this evidence was not available to the President of the United States.
Notwithstanding this evidence, in Cairo, Obama insisted on having the leadership of Muslim Brotherhood (a party banned by Egypt) attend his talk — he had them put in the front row. He contributed to the downfall of the Hosni Mubarak regime in Egypt by calling for his prompt resignation during the protests in Tahrir Square.
In the United States, in Herndon Virginia, the FBI raided a house belonging to two people that had been found photographing the bridge supports of the Annapolis Bay Bridge. They found a document showing a conspiracy of the Muslim Brotherhood to engage in a “”grand jihad” eliminating and destroying the Western civilization FROM WITHIN, and “sabotaging its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.” [my emphasis] This language appeared in a document entitled “An Explanatory Memorandum On the General Strategic Goal for the Group In North America” The document was written by Mohammed Akram who sent it to the Shura Council of the Muslim Brotherhood for their comment and approval, stating that it was an update and restatement of the plan they had agreed to in 1987. The document was submitted in evidence in the Holy Land Foundation case; its authenticity was not disputed.
There is additional evidence of the Muslim Brotherhood’s plan for conquest of the West. It can be found in a document found by Swiss authorities in 2005. The only article written about it is in French. La conquête de l’Occident: Le projet secret des Islamistes (Paris: Le Seuil, 2005), pp. 193-205. that I think means “The conquest of the West: The Secret Project of the Islamists. You can find a translation of the document at: http://archive.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?… It outlines a 100 year plan for world domination under Sharia. Patrick Poole tells us a little more about the document in an article entitled “The Muslim Brotherhood Project.http://archive.frontpagemag.com/readarticle.aspx?…
With all this available information indicating a legitimate concern with the activities of the Muslim Brotherhood engaging in subversion, and attempting world domination, Michele Bachmann is berated by the Democrats and the media for asking the Inspector Generals of several Federal Departments or agencies to investigate whether the Muslim Brotherhood has infiltrated our government. These criticisms of Bachman never mention the evidence submitted in the Holy Land Foundation case — they say instead there is absolutely no reason for such an investigation.
And even though CAIR, and other mainstream muslim organizations were named in the Holy Land Foundation case as “unindicted co-conspirators”, the US Department of Justice has dropped investigation of them so we will never know whether they should be indicted. By the time any investigation is renewed, all the documents will be gone and their computer memories will have encountered strong magnets.
So it would be nice to get a President who is not obsessed with engagement with the Muslim Brotherhood. The sooner the better. If the New Course in the Middle East is not helpful to us, we can thank Obama for it.
Rubin seems to be serving a misdirection post on behalf of the utterly incompetent Soetoro Obama who has mashed, (intentionally some say), most of the US foreign relations standing policies.
Mr. Soetoro Obama lied before elections about his foreign policies plans or he simply posted total ignorance. What experience did Mr. Soetoro Obama had on FA and for that matter what experience did Clinton or anyone else on that team had?
Mr. Romney is wise enough to keep his cards close to his chest until his selection for Secretary of State will be announced.
After November 6th and as Mr. Romney is elected, no one should expect spectaculars from the word go as the embedded cadres will offer stiff resistance to any change.
He will have to fumigate the State Department, CIA and FBI to clear out the Soetoro Obama plants there.
The best indicator of his foreign policy is his choice of sec of state and advisors (deeds not words)