By now you’ve undoubtedly heard the news about Mitt Romney’s gaffes, faux pas and general ignorance of foreign policy as reported throughout the mainstream press. You recognize the fact that such statements might indicate such rank ignorance of the world disqualifies one from occupying the Oval Office. So, with your mental scorecard, you thoughtfully consider each reported gaffe to be filed in the gray matter cabinet as “dumb stuff Romney said.”
Rick McKee / Augusta Chronicle (click to view more cartoons by McKee)
This week’s gaffe is as poignant as all the others: “Palestinians don’t want peace.” Yes, Romney said that. Yes, it proves he is a master of the obvious. Palestinians have lobbed more than 440 “peaceloving” rockets into civilian neighborhoods this year, causing Israelis to build a warmongering, aggressive bomb-proof school in Sderot. Would you vote for a presidential candidate who publicly celebrates a Nazi sympathizer on Israel Independence Day and, while in Poland, blames the Polish people for concentration camps installed by the German invaders?
Who so misunderstands Israel and its Prime Minister that he gets frustrated during a conversation and bolts from discussions in a hissy-fit… on two separate occasions?
Who took no action to protect U.S. citizens following warnings of impending attacks on U.S. embassies within days of 9/11?
Who failed to back Iran’s Green Movement and to support freedom fighters in the Free Syria Army, telling them, publicly, he won’t help arm them until after the election?
Who sends Russia a “reset button” they don’t understand while they send arms to Syria, which we do understand?
Who apologizes to a crowd in Austria for not being able to “speak Austrian” when no such language exists? At least if he said he didn’t “speak South Philly” he’d ne referring to an actual dialect.
Yes, one of the candidates for President committed all of these foreign policy gaffes, and even publicly apologized for one of them. Stirring old resentments and generating thousands of negative reactions on news media websites and social media sites, he called a German death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland a “Polish death camp.” Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski was shocked beyond belief at a ceremony to honor resistance fighter Jan Karski, saying, “It’s a pity that such a dignified ceremony was overshadowed by ignorance and incompetence.”
You may also consider using the words “ignorance and incompetence” to describe sending a message on Twitter that encourages your supporters to buy the candidate’s logo sweatshirts at 2:20 p..m the same day you are addressing a solemn ceremony transferring the remains of the Benghazi U.S. Consulate at 2:46 p.m. Really.
And your message on 9/11 is, “The election is in 8 weeks. Sign up to volunteer.” Really. At 7:07 a.m. On 9/11.
Some of you may think 9/11 is insignificant. You have that right. I don’t want a President who just goes through the ceremonial motions while obviously more concerned with campaigning. Surely it’s obvious to you that these voluminous international embarrassments and failures are not those of Mitt Romney, whose major gaffe was to acknowledge, “Palestinians don’t want peace,” but rather they come from our current President, Barack Obama.
Perhaps you’re also wondering why these major failures and public foot-tastings of President Obama haven’t generated as much media reaction and outcry as “Palestinians don’t want peace.”
Of course you are.
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© Copyright 2012 Rick Jensen, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.
Rick Jensen is Delaware’s Award-Winning Conservative Talk Show Host on 1150AM WDEL and 93.7FM HD3, Streaming live on WDEL.com from 1pm – 4pm EST. Contact Rick at rick@wdel.com, or follow him on Twitter @Jensen1150WDEL.
