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http://www.buzzfeed.com/bensmith/foreign-policy-hands-voice-disbelief-at-romney-cai
"Mitt Romney's sharply-worded attack on President Obama over a pair of deadly riots in Muslim countries last night has backfired badly among foreign policy hands of both parties, who cast it as hasty and off-key, released before the facts were clear at what has become a moment of tragedy.
Romney keyed his statement to the American Embassy in Cairo's condemnation of an anti-Muslim video that served as the trigger for the latest in a series of regional riots over obscure perceived slights to the faith. But his statement — initially embargoed to avoid release on September 11, then released yesterday evening anyway — came just before news that the American Ambassador to Libya had been killed and broke with a tradition of unity around national tragedies, and of avoiding hasty statements on foreign policy. It was the second time Romney has been burned by an early statement on a complex crisis: Romney denounced the Obama Administration's handling of a Chinese dissident's escape just as the Administration negotiated behind the scenes for his departure from the country.
"They were just trying to score a cheap news cycle hit based on the embassy statement and now it’s just completely blown up," said a very senior Republican foreign policy hand, who called the statement an "utter disaster" and a "Lehman moment" — a parallel to the moment when John McCain, amid the 2008 financial crisis, failed to come across as a steady leader..."
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Here's a comment that stood out (from Karlon Caldwell, US Army):
"Our ambassador's body hasn't even reached our shores yet here we are yelling past each other and no one is hearing a thing. I am going to tell you what will happen. There are American operatives in Libya&Egypt right now. In fact they are all over the Middle East. I have been over there and trust me, we have mercs there. They come on our foreign bases daily to rest and rearm. You know them because they are unshaved, civilian dressed, civilian vehicles and they carry light/heavy weapons. What they do and where they go is priviledged info but if there are veterans of our recent wars on this post then you know exactly what I am talking about. These "protesters" will be identified by their own people and will be targeted. It will be quiet and while we here at home think nothing is being done, people will dissapear and we will never know it. The US has 24/7 covert ops on every populated continent and while some will say that BO is weak, they must know that he has taken out more Al Qaeda/Taliban leaders in 3 years than GWB did in 8. Read up. We are heavy in Yemen as well and there are ops on the ground identifying people and sending intel back daily to guide those drone strikes. We Americans like a massive response but quietly & quickly achieves higher success rates and by success I think you know what I mean."
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Romney has committed a serious international blunder by being shamelessly opportunistic. Who's surprised?
