Jeffrey Goldberg wrote on Thursday that President Obama was more likely to attack Iran if he wins the November election than a President Romney would be, and cited as one of his reasons:
Romney would be a new president in 2013, which could plausibly be the year for a preventive attack. He will be inexperienced, and his national security team will be new and potentially inexperienced as well. The learning curve on Iran is steep, and the Iranian regime knows it.
The thing is, Romney’s natsec team will be the same old neocon crew we know and love from Dubya’s days. They’ll be delighted at Romney’s inexperience, just as they were at Bush’s in his first term. They’ve already used his inexperience and GOP purity tests to lead him down the path to a disasterous war. This from the NY Times blog, “The Caucus”, today:
7:17 a.m. | Updated JERUSALEM ”” In a speech here Sunday evening, Mitt Romney plans to assert that he respects Israel’s right to take pre-emptive action to prevent Iran from developing nuclear capabilities that could be used for a weapon.
Dan Senor, a senior Romney foreign policy adviser who helped orchestrate Mr. Romney’s stop here, told reporters in a briefing before the speech that Mr. Romney would express ”” several times ”” that it was ”œunacceptable” for Iran to develop the capability to build nuclear weapons, including his view that Israel reserves the right to take action against Iran.
”œIf Israel has to take action on its own, in order to stop Iran from developing that capability, the governor would respect that decision,” Mr. Senor said.
Previewing Mr. Romney’s remarks, Mr. Senor explained: ”œIt is not enough just to stop Iran from developing a nuclear program. The capability, even if that capability is short of weaponization, is a pathway to weaponization, and the capability gives Iran the power it needs to wreak havoc in the region and around the world.”
Dan fucking Senor! The neocons have the Great Mittsby all sewn up at this point. The “Japan Option”, as the capability to build a nuke without actually doing so has been described, is not proscribed by international treaty and an Israeli military intervention on that basis would be aggressive warfare of the most illegal kind. Senor is saying that Romney will back such an attack 100%, dragging the US into an illegal war, UN or no. The Guardian also has Romney saying this in his speech tonight:
“We’re part of the great fellowship of democracies. We speak the same language of freedom and justice, and the right of every person to live in peace. We serve the same cause and provoke the same hatreds in the same enemies of civilisation.”
Axis of Evil, here we come.
Agence France-Presse, July 29
Ramallah, Palestinian Territories — US presidential hopeful Mitt Romney’s endorsement of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel is “harmful†to US interests in the Middle East, a senior Palestinian official said on Sunday.
“Romney’s declarations are harmful to American interests in our region, and they harm peace, security and stability,†Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told AFP.
“Even if this statement is within the US election campaign, it is unacceptable and we completely reject it. The US election campaign should never be at the expense of the Palestinians,†he said.
“Romney is rewarding occupation, settlement and extremism in the region with such declarations.â€