Romney in Israel Sunday: “We must lead” in preventing Iran nukes

Presumptive Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney, on a visit yesterday to Israel’s Western Wall, struck a Churchillian note with a call for moral clarity that is long-overdue.

He talked tough about reigning in Iran’s nuclear program:

“We must lead the effort to prevent Iran from building and possessing nuclear weapons capability,” Romney said. “We should employ any and all measures to dissuade the Iranian regime from its nuclear course. And it is our fervent hope that diplomatic and economic measures will do so. In the final analysis, of course, no option should be excluded. We recognize Israel’s right to defend itself and that it is right for America to stand with you.”

Romney is not stating that, as President, he would be willing to undertake military action to stop Iran. But he does plainly state that, should Israel need to act in self-defense, an America with Romney at the helm would support Israel.

He added, “It is sometimes said that those who are the most committed to stopping the Iranian regime from securing nuclear weapons are reckless and provocative and inviting war,” Romney said. “The opposite is true. We are the true peacemakers.”

Of course, this is true. Stopping murderous and/or crazy people from getting weapons is not fomenting war; it is the opposite. Just ask any advocate of gun control–or even of background checks for those who would purchase guns. Come to think of it, maybe a military operation to dismantle Iran’s nuclear program should just simply be called a “gun, missile, and bomb control” operation aimed at keeping ammunition out of the hands of the mentally unstable. Liberals probably wouldn’t support that, but it would reflect the same impulse and logic that laws and law enforcement aimed at keeping guns off the street–and especially out of the hands of mentally unstable individuals–do.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a point to dismiss the effectiveness of efforts to stop Iran’s nuclear programs through sanctions. “The sanctions and diplomacy so far have not set back the Iranian program by one iota,” Netanyahu said.

It is vital for security-minded and pro-Israel American voters to remember that not only have sanctions been ineffective, but President Obama had to be pushed into acting by both Houses of Congress; he simply failed to take the lead on this issue. So obstructionist was his administration to the timely passage of sanctions against the Iranian regime (for which Obama now takes credit!) that one one point, even a prominent Democrat, Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey, erupted in frustration over the administration’s undermining tough sanctions, declaring, “When are we going to start our sanctions regime robustly? Six months before … they get a nuclear weapon?”

This election is vital–possibly to the survival of Israel, and to the security of the U.S., as enemies of the free world are testing our will. Romney said it well: “”Make no mistake, the ayatollahs in Iran are testing our moral defenses,” he said. “They want to know who will object and who will look the other way. We will not look away nor will our country ever look away from our passion and commitment to Israel.”

This entry was written by Heather Robinson and posted on July 30, 2012 at 6:02 pm and filed under Blog. permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Keywords: 2012-Presidential-election, Iran, Israel, Mitt-Romney, President-Obama. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL. */?>