Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

We still have time to mess this up!

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Weird. Rome has an American Pope and America has a Russian President.

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

We can show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” was supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

If you can’t control your emotions, someone else will.

The republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2012 / Red Lines, the New Aluminum Tubes

Red Lines, the New Aluminum Tubes

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For those of you who have not paid attention, Team Obama has been beating Romney about the head and neck for his foreign policy gaffes:

The Obama campaign on Monday stepped up its attacks on Mitt Romney’s foreign policy record, with a prominent surrogate blasting the GOP candidate as a novice whose policies amounted to little more than “tough talk and chest-thumping.”

In a conference call with reporters, retired Gen. Wesley Clark focused on Romney’s failure to mention the troops in Afghanistan during his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, saying it was “more than an omission” and highlighted the nominee’s inexperience.

“It reveals a severe lack of understanding of the job of president … and frankly it’s unbecoming of someone who wants to be the commander in chief,” Clark said.
“They’re not an item on a laundry list, they’re a priority,” he said of the troops.

Clark’s “laundry list” comment was in response to a Fox News interview Romney gave last week in which he was asked if he regretted not mentioning the troops in his speech.

Recall John Kerry gleefully bludgeoning Mitt just last week:

It isn’t fair to say Mitt Romney doesn’t have a position on Afghanistan. He has every position. He was against setting a date for withdrawal – then he said it was right – and then he left the impression that maybe it was wrong to leave this soon. He said it was ”tragic” to leave Iraq, and then he said it was fine. He said we should’ve intervened in Libya sooner. Then he ran down a hallway to duck reporters’ questions. Then he said the intervention was too aggressive. Then he said the world was a ”better place” because the intervention succeeded. Talk about being for it before you were against it!

Mr. Romney – here’s a little advice: Before you debate Barack Obama on foreign policy, you better finish the debate with yourself! ”President Mitt Romney” – three hypothetical words that mystified and alienated our allies this summer. For Mitt Romney, an overseas trip is what you call it when you trip all over yourself overseas. It wasn’t a goodwill mission – it was a blooper reel.

But a Romney – Ryan foreign policy would be anything but funny. Every president of both parties for 60 years has worked for nuclear arms control – but not Mitt Romney. Republican secretaries of state from Kissinger to Baker, Powell to Rice, President Bush, and 71 United States senators all supported President Obama’s New Start treaty. But not Mitt Romney. He’s even blurted out the preposterous notion that Russia is our ”number one geopolitical foe.” Folks: Sarah Palin said she could see Russia from Alaska; Mitt Romney talks like he’s only seen Russia by watching Rocky IV.

So here’s the choice in 2012. Mitt Romney: out of touch at home, out of his depth abroad and out of the mainstream. Or Barack Obama: a president who is giving new life and truth to America’s indispensable role in the world; a commander – in – chief who gives our troops the tools and training they need in war, the honor and help they’ve earned when they come home; a man who will never ask other men and women to fight a war without a plan to win the peace.

Have no fear, Republicans, the Likud party is about to attempt to come to your rescue:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel inserted himself into the most contentious foreign policy issue of the American presidential campaign on Tuesday, criticizing the Obama administration for refusing to set clear “red lines” on Iran’s nuclear progress that would prompt the United States to undertake a military strike. As a result, he said, the administration has no “moral right” to restrain Israel from taking military action of its own.

Mr. Netanyahu’s unusually harsh public comments about Israel’s most important ally, which closely track what he has reportedly said in vivid terms to American officials visiting Jerusalem, laid bare the tension between him and President Obama over how to handle Iran. They also suggested that he is willing to use the pressure of the presidential election to try to force Mr. Obama to commit to attack Iran under certain conditions.

I’m sure it is all just a coincidence. Romney is getting demolished on national security and foreign policy issues, so it is just unfortunate timing that has the Republican’s favorite Israeli inserting himself again into an American election. Make no mistake, Netanyahu wants a Romney administration, because then AIPAC’s deepest fantasies will be actual American policy.

None of this should be surprising. If you remember the aftermath of the 2008 election, the “moderate” Kadima party led by Tsipi Livni killed 1,000 Palestinians in a sustained massacre in Gaza in response to erratic and largely unsuccessful rocket fire, so learning that Netanyahu is throwing the Likud party weight around advocating war with Iran is kind of to be expected. The only people who are probably surprised by this are the Palestinians, because they are usually the ones who expect to get killed when Israeli’s act while Americans are distracted by elections.

At any rate, the bonus for the domestic Likud party Republicans is that we’ll get to kill Medicare and Social Security one way or another. Either the Romney/Ryan team kills it, or the AIPAC party bankrupts us with another several trillion dollar war with Iran. But hey, with the latter, we get to slap yellow ribbons on our car, go shopping, and watch really awesome episodes of ABC’s Extreme Makeover in which we build new homes for crippled veterans. Maybe in the newer episodes we can build a house with oxygen tanks after some solid chemical warfare. I almost want to go put my American flag up right now. Can’t you feel the excitement?

Reader Interactions

100Comments

  2. 2.

    Little Boots

    seriously, just you and me johnnie.

    oh damn.

    not that that I don’t like you, but damn, it’s a little awkward.

  3. 3.

    gussie

    It’s ‘Livni,’ and I wonder if the rest of the paragraph is equally accurate. (I actually do wonder; not snarking.)

  4. 4.

    Punchy

    Boy, you’re all over the map with this post. This should be broken down into at least 2 or 3 posts.

    So the Jews make the news, brews feuds that fuel cruel media gruel. Similarly surprising, my dogs lick their asses and babies only puke on work clothes.

  5. 5.

    General Stuck

    “I only regret you’re repeating it day in and day out,” Romney said. “When you give a speech you don’t go through a laundry list, you talk about the things that you think are important,

    In REAL Murrica, this is called fucking the chicken with no hands.

  6. 6.

    Anya

    I wish POTUS play hardball, and shows that motherfucket Netanyahu that he can’t dictate our foreign policy. That fucker should not be allowed to manipulate our election and anyone who’s swayed by a foreign leader is a dirty traitor.

  11. 11.

    Mark S.

    To my knowledge, opposing the START treaty is about the only the foreign policy position Romney has ever publicly taken. It was an obscure issue that only a few idiots at the Weekly Standard opposed and people who knew anything about it came away thinking Mitt was a fucking idiot. Who Mitt was trying to appeal to was a mystery, since no one with a brain wants to resurrect the Cold War.

  13. 13.

    Little Boots

    there will not be a true progressive in office for another generation. but there may be incremental changes.

  15. 15.

    General Stuck

    Obama has accomplished what I thought was impossible. And that is not only own Romney on foreign affairs, But to own the GOP on national security, period.

    edit – and ending the GOP owning democrats on these things since Vietnam. That is no small thing.

  17. 17.

    Or something like that.Suffern Ace

    So is Bibi going to pony up the money to airlift supplies to the troops in Afghanistan after his little adventure? As long as we are there, Pakistan and Russia constrain our actions and until Russia says ok, buck up and deal.

  18. 18.

    cbear

    @gussie:

    I wonder if the rest of the paragraph is equally accurate. (I actually do wonder; not snarking.)

    Of course you do. It’s both unpossible that those wonderful freedom-loving Israeli warriors could ever have brutalized those terrist Palestinians and deeply unAmerican to suggest otherwise.

  20. 20.

    lamh35

    Mitt f’n up everywhere in FP. Now of course he’s jumping on the Egypt embassy and latching it to “Obama apologizing” again. It smacks of desperation and even the buzzfeed, TPM crowd are treating it as such, an obvious “hail mary”.

    Oh, BTW, this happened too:

    Putin ‘Grateful’ To Romney

    Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday said he was “grateful” to Mitt Romney for saying Russia remained the United States’ “No. 1 geopolitical foe” because the remark actually helped Putin in missile defense negotiations, reports ABC News:

    “I’m grateful to him (Romney) for formulating his stance so clearly because he has once again proven the correctness of our approach to missile defense problems,” Putin told reporters, according to the Russian news agency RIA Novosti.

    “The most important thing for us is that even if he doesn’t win now, he or a person with similar views may come to power in four years. We must take that into consideration while dealing with security issues for a long perspective,” he said, speaking after a meeting with Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic, according to Interfax news agency.

    Thanks a lot Mitt.

  22. 22.

    Hunter Gathers

    It’s good to know that Bibi The Butcher’s only friend at this point, the Marqius De Mittens, is someone who’s going to be irrelevant in 2 months. I will enjoy watching the entire international community tell Bibi to go fuck himself, if only because Jen Rubin and Bill Krystol will have major sads over it.

  23. 23.

    some guy

    all AIPAC employees need to be registered as agents of a foreign power. down to the local membership coordinators. immediately.

    who the fuck is this tiny, rogue terrorist nation to demand anything of their major financial patron, not to mention the vetoes used at the UN Security Council to cover for their war crimes ?

  26. 26.

    Steve

    @Little Boots: I’m a caring person. Come to any one of these late-night threads and like half the comments are you talking to yourself. It’s hard not to wonder what the deal is.

  27. 27.

    MikeInSewickley

    Michael Scheuer, the now right-winger who lead the Osama Bin Laden desk at the CIA, mentioned in several of his books that he just does not see the strategic value of being the primary ally and protector of Israel. They ignore any suggestions we make while we have to choke on their craziness which immediately destroys us from being any kind of impartial party to try and bring peace any where in the region.

    …and this won’t change as long as a majority of the American Taliban believe we need to keep the increasingly undemocratic Israel our friend so Jesus has a place to put his foot when he returns.

    These fuckers are going to get us into a goddamn nuclear war yet.

  28. 28.

    Or something like that.Suffern Ace

    @lamh35: well that’s kind of posturing…as if Putin in his anti modernization zealot mode needs to negotiate.

  31. 31.

    Or something like that.Suffern Ace

    @MikeInSewickley: I wish we could adopt a peace stance here-if Iran stops electing holocaust denying dorks, we’ll send Bibi to exile in – oh who cares where.

  32. 32.

    lamh35

    His True Colors

    As noted, we have two simultaneous crises washing over Washington tonight from the Middle East. First, the US-Israel blow up, which I discussed below. Next, riots which escalated into full-scale attacks on US embassies in Cairo and Benghazi, triggered by another stunt by Quran-burning ‘pastor’ Terry Jones down in Florida. A State Department officer was actually killed in the attack on the compound in Benghazi.
    In the midst of this, the Romney campaign put out this statement …

    So Romney jumps to politicize a genuine crisis in which a Foreign Service Officer has been killed. And the attack itself is based on a falsehood. The reference is to a statement released by the Embassy in Libya which in fact came out before the attacks took place. The entire thing is based on a lie.

  34. 34.

    barath

    This is the one shoe that has been waiting to drop for the last many months. And I still hope it doesn’t, but as Josh Marshall notes, Bibi’s leverage grows until election day and then drops sharply.

  35. 35.

    Comrade Mary

    @Hunter Gathers:

    I will enjoy watching the entire international community tell Bibi to go fuck himself,

    *cough* Stephen Harper *cough* My fellow fucking citizens voted in that waste of skin. I strongly suspect that little move was coordinated with Netanyahu to bring pressure on the States.

  36. 36.

    some guy

    if Israel is really worried about Iran building nuclear bombs why don’t they give them a couple of theirs? sharing is caring!

  37. 37.

    some guy

    if Israel is really worried about Iran building nuclear bombs why don’t they give them a couple of theirs? sharing is caring!

  38. 38.

    lamh35

    Josh Marshall ‏@joshtpm
    A sad example that Romney is desperate, lacks integrity or scruples, or even qualms over enlisting dead American as political prop

    @BenjySarlin
    Obama camp decries “political attack” from Romney in wake of American death

    That didn’t sit well with the Obama campaign, who accused Romney of exploiting the crisis for electoral gain.
    “We are shocked that, at a time when the United States of America is confronting the tragic death of one of our diplomatic officers in Libya, Governor Romney would choose to launch a political attack,” Obama’s campaign press secretary Ben LaBolt said in a statement.

    Update: Republican National Committee chair Reince Priebus accused the president of siding with the rioters

  39. 39.

    Little Boots

    romney’s doomed, but we have a real problem in that congress is so ridiculously screwed up about the entire middle east.

  41. 41.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    Obama probably told Nuttinyahoo that the traitor Pollard isn’t going to be released to Israel while Rmoney probably said he would. The Big Dawg wouldn’t barter with him either, knowing that Nuttinyahoo would screw him over on the ‘concessions’ he would make to the Palestinians. I wonder if Nuttinyahoo has thought about the implications of his actions on his relationship with the White House if (when) Obama wins.

    Probably not, crazy conservatives run on the moment and couldn’t care less about the future.

  42. 42.

    Violet

    “It reveals a severe lack of understanding of the job of president … and frankly it’s unbecoming of someone who wants to be the commander in chief,” Clark said.

    This from the man who was the host of the recent trashy reality show starring Todd Palin “Stars Earn Stripes.” Not sure he’s the very best surrogate on this matter.

  44. 44.

    GregB

    Speaking of Harper. Canada removed their staff from Iran’s embassy this past week.

    This is all getting very ugly, very fast.

  45. 45.

    askew

    I am more worried about the attacks on the US embassy in Cairo and the US consulate in Libya due to an anti-Muslim movie funded by rightwing Christian nutcase Terry Jones and a handful of unnamed wealthy Jews. It smells like GOP ratfucking to me. Romney is already putting out a statement claiming that Obama is sympathizing with the attackers.

  47. 47.

    tech98

    The administration has no “moral right” to restrain Israel from taking military action of its own.

    “I demand you keep that unconditional political support coming, and by the way you’re late with this month’s massive military aid check,” he might have said.

  51. 51.

    Water balloon

    War with Iran would do more damage to the US than Iraq and the financial crisis put together. We can’t let that happen. I like Obama, but that’s a red line he needs to continue to avoid.

    That’s what I say to Naderites. Gore would have talked big but would never have been dumb enough to invade Iraq, just like Obama will pursue sanctions and things like the Stuxnet virus, but isn’t dumb enough to attack Iran.

  53. 53.

    PurpleGirl

    @General Stuck: As I see it, the GOP has been slamming Democrats and foreign policy since the end of WWII. Remember “who lost China”? (As if the US ever “owned” China.) Not to mention all those “captive nations” of Eastern Europe.

  54. 54.

    GregB

    I fear that the Netanyahu calculus could possibly be to punch the Iranians in the mouth(launch a limited attack) and then use the political pressure in the media from Romney and the pro-Israeli media elements in order to force an American response to prevent the retaliation from escalating beyond their capacity to absorb.

    It is earth ending insanity.

  55. 55.

    max

    Make no mistake, Netanyahu wants a Romney administration, because then AIPAC’s deepest fantasies will be actual American policy.

    Of course he does. Now that they’re out with it, it has seemed obvious for weeks that the neocons and fellow travelers and the actual likudniks in Israel are working themselves into a lather over attacking Iran *before* the election.

    While trying to work up the nerve to go for it, they actually pulled the classic neocon trick of disdaining any *Israeli* generals opposing the attack on the grounds that those generals were… (wait for it)… jealous.

    HA! So given that Bibi is a maniac and he’s determined to attack. (Not exactly true: he’s determined to get the US into a war with Iran, ideally while Israel sits on the sidelines.) So if he wants to launch a ridiculous long-range attack on Iran, I say, let him. I would just have Hillary at the ready to get on the phone with the Russians to inform them that the attack is going off so they can relay that info to the Iranians.

    The point of warning the Iranians in advance of the Israelis going off the reservation is to make it clear that the US isn’t involved, isn’t supporting and did not attack Iran. Our beef is the nukes and nothing else, and we’ll stick with the sanctions, thank you.

    I’m sure that would make Bibi very unhappy since it would render a probably already ineffective attack totally ineffective, but hey, fuck him. Or tell him, ‘Remember the Liberty… asshole‘.

    max
    [‘Job one for the US is protecting our forces, and if the Israelis can’t abide teamwork, then we protect our own.’]

  56. 56.

    Violet

    From the White House:
    __
    President Obama spoke with Prime Minister Netanyahu for an hour tonight as a part of their ongoing consultations. The two leaders discussed the threat posed by Iran’s nuclear program, and our close cooperation on Iran and other security issues. President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu reaffirmed that they are united in their determination to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, and agreed to continue their close consultations going forward. Contrary to reports in the press, there was never a request for Prime Minister Netanyahu to meet with President Obama in Washington, nor was a request for a meeting ever denied.

    Link: http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/white-house-obama-netanyahu-talked-over-phone

  57. 57.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    I heard that Rupert Murdoch is telling Rmoney to move to the middle because “the far right has nowhere else to go”.

    That’s gonna leave a mark… somewhere!

  58. 58.

    some guy

    wouldn’t a few well-placed bunker busters strategically dropped on Gush Etzion and Ariel and Kiryat Arba solve multiple problems at once?

  60. 60.

    Or something like that.Suffern Ace

    @Water balloon: I don’t see a decent way out of this situation except whistling. We’ve got fools like McCain who want us in Syria, but once you eliminate the original protesters (who like in Egypt will probably be cast aside sooner or later) you don’t really have a whole lot of gee whiz they’d be great groups to choose from.

  62. 62.

    Anya

    I am fed-up with conservative nut jobs. Crazies in Libya killed a State Department staffer over a fucking film no one has seen, and the wingnuts in the state and flaming the crazies in the middle east. I fucking hate everyone.

    Obscure Film Mocking Muslim Prophet Sparks Anti-U.S. Protests in Egypt and Libya

    Although there was initial confusion about who made the film, The Wall Street Journal reported that the drama, titled “Innocence of Muslims,” was produced and directed by an Israeli-American, Sam Bacile, a California real-estate developer who called Islam “a cancer,” in an interview. Mr. Bacile told The Journal that he raised $5 million from about 100 Jewish donors and shot the two-hour movie in California last year.
    Last week, an Egyptian-American Copt known for his broadsides against Muslims drew attention to the trailer in an e-mail newsletter publicizing the latest publicity stunt of the Florida pastor Terry Jones, reviled in the Muslim world for burning copies of the Koran. Reached by telephone in Florida, a representative of Mr. Jones seemed unaware of the film, but hours later the pastor sent The Lede a statement by e-mail in which he complained of the attack on the embassy in Cairo and announced plans to screen the trailer for the film on Tuesday night. He said that it “reveals in a satirical fashion the life of Muhammad.”

  64. 64.

    Dee Loralei

    Hello October Surprise. Brought to us by Bibi and Willard. I hope everyone in the US foreign policy/ defense policy is on the phone to Israel telling them, if you bilk this, we will not come. If Israel starts a war right now with the Mullah’s, much of Romney’s weak support will not vote for him, if it means a real land war with Iran.

    No one wants another war. Even the most idiotic of the right-wingers I know, knows a war means higher taxes and a draft.

    For my own sanity, I have to believe that starting a new war, will make most Americans balk.

    And I hope that GodDamned Terry Jones of the handle-bar mustaches for Jesus, gets hauled before a civil court for getting someone’s husband or father killed because of his antics.

  65. 65.

    amk

    nut n yahoo’s Iran wet dream will remain just that. The russians and chinese (who want their oil) aren’t going to sit on their asses. And the nato won’t lift a finger. Expect the bully to turn into a coward when the push to comes a shove.

  66. 66.

    Or something like that.Suffern Ace

    @Dee Loralei: Before condemning terry jones, it looks like jones is a stupid tool in this. Unless he paid to get the preview translated into Arabic – which I highly doubt.

  67. 67.

    Chris

    @max:

    The trouble is that if Israel does attack Iran, the U.S. can’t do anything more than (at worst) waggle their finger and say it was rash. Warning Russia/Iran? Cut off foreign aid? Even just telling them too overtly to go fuck themselves? It’s politically impossible to do any of these things no matter what Israel does; too much of the political system and the public are in the tank for them no matter what and have proven it time and time again whenever a crisis comes up. I’d love to be proven wrong, but I don’t think I am.

    So at this point I’m left hoping that, as Nostradumbass suggests, Iran is a bridge too far for Israel to be able to reach it at all.

    (And man, can I ever empathize with the number of people who in the early 2000s were listing Israel and America as the number one threats to world peace. The former is even more true ten years later, and the latter definitely will be again if Romney’s in the White House).

  68. 68.

    some guy

    @Dee Loralei:

    And I hope that GodDamned Terry Jones of the handle-bar mustaches for Jesus, Israeli-American, Sam Bacile, a California real-estate developer gets hauled before a civil court for getting someone’s husband or father killed because of his antics.

  70. 70.

    rootless_e

    http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/clinton-s-slap-in-the-face.premium-1.464375

    U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton didn’t whisper this week. She delivered the long-awaited slap. “We’re not setting deadlines for Iran,” she declared in an interview with Bloomberg Radio.

    Clinton said the United States considers negotiations “by far the best approach to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.” You don’t have to be an expert in American diplomatic language to understand to whom the secretary of state’s words are directed, and why. Blatant, direct, cold and harsh language is the only way to get the hearing-impaired country to understand what the Americans want from it.

    Clinton did not direct her words at Tehran, but at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In other words: Israel will not present any ultimatum to the United States and will not dictate red or blue lines to Washington. The time has come, Clinton made it clear, for Israel to internalize the fact that the United States also has an independent policy, its own interests and timetable, which, amazingly, are not decided in Jerusalem.

    Sheldon Adelson will be enraged.

  71. 71.

    Or something like that.Suffern Ace

    And btw. We may not have the moral authority to tell Bibi to fuck off, but we have the god damned bombers. Which kind of let’s us give him the amoral middle finger.

    Which is the closest you’ll get me to a full blown America Fuck Yeah at the moment.

  72. 72.

    Dee Loralei

    @Or something like that.Suffern Ace: I was condemning him because if he hadn’t burned the Koran, then not one of us would have known his name. None of us here, no one in the Muslim World. And there would never be a documentary about some pastor of a minor sect of Christianity who had outre facial hair.

    He got noticed, because he demanded that he get noticed. That is all.So he deserves to be sued. Or condemned. Or whatever it is that the modern world can do to him.

    He may not have invited these documentary producers into his church and heart. But he invited all of us to pay attention to him. He can’t hide now.

  73. 73.

    Steve

    Accusing the President of sympathizing with rioters who attacked our embassy is so far over the line I don’t even know what Republicans do for an encore. Seriously, it wasn’t even Steve King or Michele Bachmann who came up with that deranged accusation, it was the chair of their party.

  74. 74.

    Dee Loralei

    @some guy: What I said @72 applies also to your comment. I know Terry Jones didn’t hire this team of documentarians. But had he not been “that guy” no film-maker would have made that film. The End.

  75. 75.

    Or something like that.Suffern Ace

    @amk: I was trying to think about what China would do. Having the US at war with Iran wouldn’t be the worst thing for them. It would piss of India, and A strain in that relationship would be welcome. It would pull us away from our focus on the east. And who knows. Another mid east war might finish us off as a power. We’ve been at war for ten years now. Adding another ten would probably collapse us. All that for Iran? Iran isn’t the best ally to have anyway.

  77. 77.

    Chris

    @Or something like that.Suffern Ace:

    I suspect the ChiComs have been laughing all the way to the bank since 2002 at the absolute latest. They don’t need to challenge us or outdo us or lift so much as a pinky, just go about their business as we destroy ourselves in the Middle East while our economy crumbles underneath our feet.

  79. 79.

    Or something like that.Suffern Ace

    @Steve: No. But they’d rather not having us heading up an anti Chinese alliance in the east either. They’d rather not have that at all.

  80. 80.

    Mandalay

    @Chris:

    …just go about their business as we destroy ourselves in the Middle East while our economy crumbles underneath our feet

    Well I wouldn’t portray it as a silver lining, but more war in the Middle East might actually be a boost to the economy.

    And, as others have already posted, China would never want the USA to have a crumbling economy.

  81. 81.

    Joel

    I see that the embassy attacks have already made the rounds at the sports message boards, with RNC branded accusations flying everywhere. They may be rusty, but they are still a fucking machine.

  82. 82.

    Yutsano

    @Or something like that.Suffern Ace: We have something even more important: refueling tankers. Israel does not have a plane with the reach to make it to Iran and back. Not to mention the most direct path goes ovr Syria, who would shoot them down in a heartbeat. Even then, they’d be gasping for fuel by the time they reached their targets. Bibi needs our support before he even thinks of trying to attack Iran and he and his generals know it.

  83. 83.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    So Rmoney says the President is down with the killers of an American embassy worker?

    “It’s disgraceful that the Obama Administration’s first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks.” –Mitt Romney

    No, what’s disgraceful is that there are Americans who will believe your disgraceful, lying ass.

  85. 85.

    Mnemosyne

    @Mandalay:

    Well I wouldn’t portray it as a silver lining, but more war in the Middle East might actually be a boost to the economy.

    To whose economy? The US doesn’t have the kind of heavy manufacturing capacity required to build the kind of weaponry that was needed for WWII. The Afghanistan and Iraq wars were/are both net drains on our economy.

  86. 86.

    Nancy Irving

    “They’re not an item on a laundry list…”

    It would be even more effective if we started saying, “They’re not dirty socks.”

  88. 88.

    Hill Dweller

    @Pseudonym: The US embassy in Egypt released a statement, in hopes of diffusing the situation, before the attacks started.

    In their desperation, Willard and the RNC jumped on it, and accused Obama of supporting the protesters.

  90. 90.

    Cacti

    @Yutsano:

    We have something even more important: refueling tankers. Israel does not have a plane with the reach to make it to Iran and back. Not to mention the most direct path goes ovr Syria, who would shoot them down in a heartbeat. Even then, they’d be gasping for fuel by the time they reached their targets. Bibi needs our support before he even thinks of trying to attack Iran and he and his generals know it.

    This.

    Which of the neighboring nations would allow Israel use of its territorial airspace to bomb Iran? And even if they didn’t retaliate directly against a violation of said airspance, I’m sure they’d be more than happy to pass the word on to Tehran to get their air defenses ready.

  92. 92.

    NorthLeft12

    @General Stuck: Unfortunately he did that by letting the drones loose on the Middle East and ensuring there will be a new generation of “terrorists” to deal with for the next few administrations.

    Well, I guess you need to break a few eggs to make an omelette, right?

  93. 93.

    Southern Beale

    Mr. Romney – here’s a little advice: Before you debate Barack Obama on foreign policy, you better finish the debate with yourself!

    I thought that was a great line.

  94. 94.

    someguy

    Romney’s latest gaffe is going all apeshit over a couple riots in the middle east. Dude clearly isn’t ready to be president. Obama’s reaction is about right – chill the fuck out. I got this.

  96. 96.

    rumpole

    I really don’t see how this is remotely in the US’s long-term interest, and it seems to me to be a very bad course for Israel to take in terms of its own interests. Israel’s position seems a bit precarious. Yes, it has a loud voice in American politics, but if it were to drag the US into another war of aggression in the Middle East, I think that influence would wane considerably, with the exception of those who believe the rapture is coming, and those who believe that Israel has the divine right to do to the Arabs what it wishes. For the president who did that (whether Romney or Obama), that move would be a complete disaster. There’s no way to get to the reactors without either (a) massive civilian casualties or (b) an actual invasion force.

    Alliances are based on common interests. This kind of strike is arguably not in Israel’s interests (but it can figure that out on its own), and definitely not in that of the United States. Friends don’t engage in this type of brinkmanship, and if Israel loses the confrontation, then its influence over its biggest ally will diminish somewhat. Further, there are a lot of folks in this country that would not take well to the idea of a foreign head of state trying to pressure the United States to go to war in general, and a smaller group that will use that pressure to reinforce ugly stereotypes.

    Marshall characterized this as “high-risk poker.” If the Vanity Fair article on Obama is accurate, it’s a showdown Israel may well lose. Those who think like Adelson won’t vote for Obama anyway.

  98. 98.

    tomvox1

    Not all Israelis are buying what Bibi’s selling:

    http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=284775

    Opposition leader Shaul Mofaz (Kadima) blamed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for what he called the deteriorating relationship between the US and Israel, in a special meeting during the Knesset’s summer recess on Wednesday. “Mr. Prime Minister, tell me, who is our biggest enemy, the US or Iran? Who do you want replaced, Ahmadinejad or Obama?” Mofaz asked in the plenum. “How low are you prepared to drag relations with our closest ally?”

  99. 99.

    General Stuck

    @NorthLeft12:

    Unfortunately he did that by letting the drones loose on the Middle East and ensuring there will be a new generation of “terrorists” to deal with for the next few administrations.

    No, He did it by pulling combat troops out of Iraq, like he said he would, and killing OBL as he said he would, and has gone against the generals and the conventional wisdom and announced a withdrawal date for Afghanistan. Not to mention not starting any new land wars in Asia , by invading countries that haven’t attacked us, that are based on lies.

    Civilian deaths from drone attacks are way way down in recent times from better protocols to not have those deaths. The middle east is not central Asia, get your geography right, then go vote for Kucinich or Nader in November. And above, tell the world you are in fact not a democrat, but a registered clown, planning to vote a straight clown ticket.

  100. 100.

    General Stuck

    @General Stuck:

    and this

    MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines continues to be a primary terrorist target in the Southeast Asian region, according to the 2011 report of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) of the United States.

    The NCTC 2011 Report on Terrorism released early in June said “over 10,000 terrorist attacks occurred during the past year, affecting nearly 45,000 victims in 70 countries and resulting in over 12,500 deaths.”

    “The total number of worldwide attacks in 2011, however, dropped by almost 12 percent from 2010 and nearly 29 percent from 2007. Although the 2011 numbers represent five-year lows, they also underscore the human toll and geographic reach of terrorism,” the report said.

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