Among the most important reasons Romney may lose this upcoming election is his silence on Michele Bachman’s letter signed by four of her colleagues asking for investigation of policies on hiring of foreign nationals in general for several departments but of Hilary Clinton’s Deputy Chief of Staff, Huma Abedin in particular. It has been alleged that members of Abedin’s immediate family are members of the Muslim brotherhood. Abedin’s husband is former Congressman Weiner.
Republicans are increasing in number who are hiding from association with Bachman and for good reason:
It all has the look and feel of a McCarthy -era witch hunt for communists in the US. This kind of investigation is not the most helpful or constructive proposal for a legislator to make. As a member of the House of Representative’s Intelligence Committee, Bachmann seems to have stepped out ahead of the Committee’s agenda. Better late than never but House Speaker John Boehner has criticized Bachmann’s actions and more recently the Intelligence Committee Chairman.
Most significantly, Mitt Romney, Republican candidate for President, has remained silent on the issue allowing his foreign policy spokesman, John Bolton, free to support Bachmann’s actions. The question becomes one of why wasn’t this a general letter, uninvolved in personalities. Here is Bolton’s statement that endeavors to do that. After all, what is so unreasonable about checking thoroughly on backgrounds for workers in sensitive areas:
Bolton’s argument is predicated on the assumption that a general inquiry had been made to several intelligence agencies when, in point of fact, the letter had pointedly requested investigation into a staff member in the office of the head of the State Department, Hilary Clinton. This is not a politic move even in election season. And that it is against Hilary Clinton’s judgment in hiring the woman suggests that Bachmann may be heading off any move to make Clinton either Vice President this election period or to consider her for 2016.
Now Romney is slated to visit Israel. Tacit support of Bachmann on this issue is not going to help the Middle East situation. Together Egypt and Israel have for many years kept a lid on many difficulties that have erupted in the area. To work in opposition to Egypt’s new government to develop another trusting relationship is to throw over work of both Republicans and Democrats over this period. It runs counter to our self-interests.
Would we like Russia or Iran to step in to replace us in Egypt? We are fast losing ground in the area as it is. An important lesson in American foreign policy that has not worked would be Cuba. Russia is seeking to build a base there. A Russian foothold in this hemisphere is what the Cuban missile crisis was all about. Now it seems everyone but the US has a foothold in Central and South America.
Nixon took us to China because he knew that dialogue was important. Why the move to insult and isolate a government that is so newly established when it is not at all clear what its policies will be as they play out is beyond comprehension? We don’t want to live under Communism; we don’t want to live in a Muslim state. But a democratic state such as the US does not win converts through opposition to other forms of government in a world increasingly smaller and diverse. The Tea Party we know today and Michele Bachman will not win this election for Romney; tolerance will.
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Summary of the Bachmann letter may be found here.
Freedom, by the way
August 3, 2012
There is a distinct difference between simply being a Muslim-American and being a Muslim that is associated with the Muslim Brotherhood or other intolerant Sharia law-supporting group. Is Bachman over the top? Perhaps. But we cannot deceive ourselves either. There are many in the Arab world (here in America, too) that have pledged to take over and transform America from the inside. And we cannot allow that happen.
samhenry
August 7, 2012
Dear Knuck and Free: I so appreciate your expressing your perspective here. I believe the Egyptian government has to be allowed to prove itself and the direction it is taking. The Middle East is primarily Muslim and there is no getting around that. We can’t afford another war and I see the ground work being laid to get the American people to conclude that it would be expedient to have one. We can no longer act singly. We must act in concert – if only with Europe that is physically closer than we.
Freedom, by the way
August 7, 2012
I am 100% with you regarding another military conflict. It pains me to say so, but after 10+ years with American troops in the middle east I now believe the lives that have been lost and forever transformed with injuries was much too high a price to pay. I will never understand why we didn’t just bomb the Al Queda training camps in Afghanistan and selectively use drones or other air power at terrorist targets in that country and Iraq. Yes, Saddam was an evil person, but the world, unfortunately is full of evil dictators that kill their citizens and America cannot possiblly rid the world of them. If a country is not posing a direct threat against the US, then we need to practice discretion.
I just heard a report the other day (on NBC which I normally don’t go to for news, but have been watching the Olympics) about the Syrian rebels considering an offer of assistance from Al Queda since the US and Nato seem disinclined to provide assistance. Was that story politically motivated so Americans won’t rebel against sending military troops to assist the rebels? I’m sorry to be skeptical, but I am. I do not want our young men and women in harm’s way in the middle east any longer. It is a region of the world where, with the exception of Israel, we are not welcome nor understood. We need to keep intelligence hot and military action cool.
samhenry
August 7, 2012
It sounds suspect, Free, especially since the headline from just a few days ago was that Obama has sanctioned covert aid to the rebels. Everyone is talking out of both sides of their mouths. This is a very confusing and disconcerting period in world history. And so many factions want world courts to judge and etc. I see the push to world government more than anything.
knuckledragingwino
August 4, 2012
I have to disagree SamHenry.
There is a big difference between being Muslim verses Muslim Brotherhood. The later is a political group that was founded in response to the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire after World War One with the avowed goal of reestablishing and massively expanding the Caliphate. Only last year the three Hawkish chicks – Hilary Clinton, Samantha Powers and Huma Wiener (you do remember former Rep Anthony (aka “Viena Sausage”) Wiener of porn texting fame?) – were dismissing concerns that the MB would seize power after Mubarak was deposed. They were wrong! Why should we believe them now when they claim that the MB will be peaceful? The Coptic Christians certainly wouldn’t agree. The developments in Egypt coincide with US support to bring Al Quaida to power in Lybia, Tunesia and Algeria. The US now has Special Forces in Syria assisting the same Al Quidai forces that they fought against in Iraq and Afghanistan depose Assad. The US has also been complicit in helping Islamic fundamentalists in Turkey purge the heirs of Kemel Ataturk who have safeguarded Turkey’s fragile, secular democracy for nearly a century. With his grandstanding over the Bin Laden assassination, Obam has humiliated and marginalized the secular, democratically elected government in Pakistan that Bush had so diligently nurtured as an alternative to a theocracy or military dictatorship.
The probable result will be a theocratic-militaristic dictatorship that controls an arsenal of 200 nukes. The sad, astonishing, and terrifying conclusion is that the Obama administration has been manipulated into assisting the Muslim Brotherhood and it’s affiliates seize control of many, Muslim countries. This is no less bizarre than the US helping to spread Facism or Communism and potentially far more catastrophic.
Rep Bachmann has cited very well researched and documented intelligence to substantiate her claim that Huma Wiener has family members who are prominent members of the Muslim Brotherhood. If you reject the idea that Clinton and Obama have been manipulated into supporting the MB, then you need to consider the alternative that Obama is and always has been a Muslim and has dedicated himself to advancing the Islamic cause rather than safeguarding the US from all enemies, foreign and domestic.
Knuckledraggingwino
August 12, 2012
SamHenry,
This is a disturbing development.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/13/world/middleeast/egyptian-leader-ousts-military-chiefs.html?_r=1&hp
Hillary Clinton, Susan Powers and Huma Wiener all assured us that the Egyptian military would moderate the power of the Muslim Brotherhood. Now the Mamalukes are being purged just as the heirs of Kemel Ataturk have been purged from the Turkish military.