For starters we'd stay in Iraq. We stay in there for a long, long time, with increasing troops and with permanent bases.
Joe Conason has been listening to the rhetoric of Republican candidates. Based on their beliefs and their rhetoric, America could be in even worse shape if any one of them were elected. Whereas Bush has condemned terrorism but been careful not to slam Muslims and Islam:
During the last Republican debate, on Aug. 5, Rudolph Giuliani eagerly provided an example of this syndrome when he attacked the Democratic presidential candidates for failing to describe terrorism as Islamic. "During four Democratic debates," he complained, "not a single Democratic candidate said the word [sic] 'Islamic terrorism.' Now, that is taking political correctness to extremes." To him, the absence of that phrase in their speeches, no matter how tough their stance against terror, proved that Democrats are guilty of "weakness and appeasement." The other Republicans, again except for Paul, agreed -- although as John Dickerson of Slate has pointed out, that phrase is also assiduously avoided by the Bush White House.
There is an obvious reason not to say "Islamic terror," which stupidly suggests that terror is indeed Islamic, as the ideologists of al-Qaida would argue. There is also an obvious reason to say that same phrase -- if you believe that we are careening toward a war of civilizations and your aim is to inflame.
In other words, more bigger war -- worldwide. Romney's no better.
Mitt Romney, his most formidable rival at the moment, uttered a similar gaffe during a debate last May, when he jammed all of Islam into a single hostile juggernaut. "There is a global jihadist movement," said the former Massachusetts governor. "And they've come together as Shi'a and Sunni and Hezbollah and Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood and al Qaeda with that intent." A more ignorant description of the Islamic political and theological dispensation is difficult to imagine, but Romney's clumsy conglomeration reflected fears that are common on the Republican right.
No question about it:
If the next president is a Republican, this truly bad situation could become still worse.
