Romney's Middle East View

September 12, 2012 to boost Romney’s position on Israel false statements surfaced saying the President did not meet with Israel’s Prime Minister and a rift was created between countries. On September 23 because the Obamas were going to be on the View, Fox News said – So he has time for Whoopi Goldberg but he doesn’t have time for world leaders? Obama’s Campaign Adviser responded with – The President is going to be actively involved at the UN General Assembly which is where he was the very next day (September 24).

In an interview with CBS’ 60 Minutes the President when asked about supporting the Arab Spring said he doesn’t regret supporting it and “I was pretty certain and continue to be pretty certain there are gonna be bumps in the road”. Romney responded with “Look at the entire context, the assassination, 20,000 people killed in Syria, Iran coming close to being a nuclear nation. These are far from being bumps in the road”. The President when talking about Syria and Iran said “If Governor Romney is suggesting that we should start another war then he should say so”.

First, the Ambassador died of smoke inhalation caused by an uprising over a movie on YouTube. Second, the UN was negotiating with Syria’s regime, after several attempts he quit out of frustration on August 2; on this same date Obama signed an order authorizing non military support for the Syrian rebels; this is within our UN commitment. Third, the President has maintained that Iran should not have a nuclear weapon-this is not the same as them having nuclear power; again we’ve complied with the UN and on August 2 Congress approved additional sanctions on Iran. Romney doesn’t have his facts straight when it comes to the Arab Spring (in 2008 a mining area in Tunisia, a North African country, began protesting for civil rights and democracy; their successful rebellion spread to other countries including Syria; the rebellions officially became the Arab Spring on December 18, 2010). When Romney was overseas in July 2012 in an interview with the Israeli daily newspaper Israel Hayom he said the Arab Spring might never have happened had Bush's ‘freedom agenda’ not been prematurely halted by President Obama. Yet, when the Arab Spring began many Bush foreign policy advocates made an argument different to that of Romney-they asserted that it was Bush's agenda that served as the main impetus for the revolutions. On September 24 Romney said-Obama said the developments in the Middle East are bumps in the road…We had an Ambassador assassinated…and Iran is closer to having a nuclear weapon. The White House Press Secretary said “There is a certain, rather desperate, attempt to grasp at words and phrases here to, ah, find political advantage and in this case that’s profoundly offensive.” (You be the judge.)