Mike Papantonio talks about how Mitt Romney's pitiful performance in the foreign policy debate, and why it should scare American voters.
LBJ was criticized by the Republicans for his nuclear holocaust commercial where a child was in the foreground of a camera shot playing with a flower. The scene then cuts to the background of a mushroom cloud expanding across the screen where a nuclear bomb was exploding in the background of the shot. The spot became known as the Daisy Ad.
Johnson was in a presidential race with Barry Goldwater who was a true war hawk – the same caliber of Mitt Romney. The Republicans whined and made gurgling sounds like only Republicans can do, and LBJ pulled the ad that truthfully did capture what was possible with a vote for Barry Goldwater.
I hesitate to compare Goldwater with Romney because Goldwater had a better intellect. He was more capable of filtering information that could have pushed America toward world war with Russia and China. Goldwater was not an etch-a-sketch, blow with the wind kind of conservative. HE was not a snake oil salesman opportunist like Mitt. But I agree with Johnson – Goldwater surrounded himself with war pimps who were still reeling about Dwight D Eisenhower pointing out that America’s military industrial complex was a true to life war promotion operation, always looking for an opportunity to use their arsenals.
If you’re a parent, you should be evaluating Mitt Romney, not according to how you believe he will handle the economy, but according to how dangerous Mitt is when it comes to potential global war catastrophe.
Last night’s debate showed us how clueless and inept Mitt Romney really is when it comes to foreign policy. He failed basic geography when he told us that Syria shares a border with Iran.
He made it obvious that he didn’t understand how a modern, 21st Century military worked.
He showed us that he has no idea what trade sanctions are in place when he suggested that the US would stop importing oil from Iran – I guess he didn’t know that the US hasn’t bought oil from Iran in almost 3 decades.
But all of his bumbling and nonsense about foreign policy isn’t what should scare voters the most. The scariest thing about Mitt Romney is his willingness to not only adopt the same tactics as George W Bush, but his eagerness to push those policies to the extreme.
Here’s the 10,000 foot: look,
60% of the foreign policy advisors he has already tapped to help him make decisions are the same war pimps that worked for Bush. Virtually everyday you can find one of them screaming for an attack on Iran, demanding a war with North Korea, promoting the idea of an invasion of Syria. Watch how China and Russia respond when both of them get their oil from Iran, when both of them remind us that both countries are heavily invested in financing and trade with both Syria and Iran. China is actually helping Iran build out their infrastructure – roads, bridges, freeways. Let’s invade Iran according to Mitt. Mitt is so oblivious and tactless in urging Israel to go bomb the hell out of Iran that he is morphing into Dr. Strangelove or worse yet, Dick Cheney, who by the way, Mitt considers his most trusted advisor on war policy.
Mitt’s second most trusted advisor is John Bolton – the dangerous, demented oddball who helped Mitt draw up his defense policy that would build 5 more warships than the military says they want or need.
The Cheney, Mitt, Bolton plan would add 100,000 more troops to our military ranks, increase the Pentagon’s fun money budget by another $200 billion and devote about 6% of the US GDP to more military spending.
There are no plans on what the military will do with all those Mitt military gifts. Right now there are not enough wars, and rumors of wars to satisfy Mitt. But he appears to be looking ahead, anticipating his chance to start pushing missile buttons from the Oval Office.
Most of us knew that W was going to be childlike impressionable by the war hawks who surrounded him from the first day he slipped into office. It wasn’t just that his eyes were too close together or that he seemed incapable of original thought. We recognized the power and influence of an unchecked, wildly independent Pentagon with such an impressionable mind. But can you visualize how wildly influenced and dominated Mitt will be. IT will be the equivalent of pink playdough in the hands of neo-nuts like Dick Cheney and John Bolton just itching for another grand war. But China won’t be playing with containment tactical weapons. And that’s what should be scaring the hell out of soccer moms.
Between Russia and China’s capabilities that small mushroom cloud LBJ used to scare the Bejeebus out of voters would look like 4th of July fireworks in the park.
The voiceover that LBJ used in the ad that I am truly glad he delivered said that there was too much at stake to allow Goldwater access to thermo-nuclear weapons. Johnson warned voters in that ad that the stakes were too high to take such a chance. The potential horror was too great to just stay at home when our children can live in peace or the world can move toward a new kind of nuclear darkness.
If you’re thinking that this election is only about the economy, you’re dead wrong. If you aren’t seeing bomb clouds behind a Mitt Romney presidency, you are not paying attention.
