In my column today (Aug.1) I warned that even after seven years of running for president, Mitt Romney would be dangerous for America and the world as commander in chief. I emphasize: The column was NOT about his obviously disastrous trip to Europe. The incompetence of this trip is old news. The issue I raise is far deeper and more serious and dangerous. The role of commander-chief of the American military is a high responsibility. On issue after issue, over the course of years, Mitt Romney has shown he lacks the qualification, preparation, temperament, skill and depth to lead our military. Mitt Romney is as unqualified to command as Sarah Palin.
Romney is still not clear on whom he believes our No. 1 foe is. One day it is Russia; another day he is not sure. Romney said he would not have ordered an attack against bin Laden in Pakistan. Then he said he would have. He gives bellicose military speeches that make him sound like a man looking for a war to fight, but he has no policy, no strategy and no substance or specifics behind his warlike words. Please read my above referenced column for a longer list.
After seven years of running for president, Romney has not studied security issues, learned security issues or developed policies regarding security issues. He speaks like a neocon amateur. Throughout his seven years of running for president he has never taken the time or shown the professionalism or depth to even prepare to be commander in chief.
Presidents matter. If Al Gore had been inaugurated as president in 2001, he would never have shown contempt for intelligence warnings about planes flying into buildings, and would never have taken America into the Iraq war, which President George W. Bush did without even knowing about Sunnis and Shiites. There are major commonalities between the mistakes of George W. Bush, the ignorance of Sarah Palin and the failures of Mitt Romney to understand the military and diplomacy from the moment long ago that he began running for president until his incompetently managed visit to Europe.
Our country has been at war for over a decade and Mitt Romney has been running for president for almost a decade. Romney is not ready to command, not qualified to command and not prepared to command. He lacks the qualities of military judgment and diplomatic skill that are essential in a president. He has insulted peoples and nations from Britain to the Palestinians, been condescending to nations from Mexico to Uruguay, advocated weird theories of cultural superiority and inferiority, and would be a danger to the security of America and the world if he were ever given the power of commander in chief.
