Romney: They All Have Beards, Don't They? Posted by David Schanzer

One would think that with Iraq in shambles and Bush at 29 percent and dropping, those vying to suceed him might try to develop an approach to extremist Islamist terrorism that reflects some understanding of the complexity and, dare we say it, subtleties, that must be dealt with to develop a successful set of policies.  But no.  Here is some deep thinking from Mitt Romney from the most recent Republican presidential debate:

There is a global jihadist movement ... And they've come together as Shi'a and Sunni and Hezbollah and Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood and al Qaeda with that intent.

Egad.  Where does one begin with this hash?

Shi'a and Sunni groups have not "come together."   al-Qaeda hates Iran (which is Shi'a), hates the Muslim Brotherhood (Sunni) for participating in elections in Egypt and elsewhere, and is a rival with Hezbollah (Shi'a) as well.  Hezbollah & Hamas are dangerous groups, but have an entirely different focus and set of objectives than al-Qaeda.  The Muslim Brotherhood is most certainly not on the United State's Christmas card list, but we ought to be exploiting differences between the Brotherhood and al Qaeda, not lumping them together.  All these groups pose significant threats to U.S. interests, but we need distinct policies to deal with the challenges each of them present. 

The longer we continue to view the Muslim world as monolithic, the deeper hole we will continue to be digging for ourselves.  If Romney endorses Bush's simplistic black & white view of the world, voters can expect that a President Romney would produce about the same success in the Middle East as his predecesor.    

Comments

[Dan Kervick]

Romney knows his audience. Whatever intra-Muslim squabbles you can point to are insignificant for winger hawks in the context of the Great Fact of the Civilizational Crusade against the evil Saracens and their diabolical plot to establish a new Global Caliphate. We have always been at war with Islam.

Even being able to list the names of different Muslim groups shows an unhealthy level of curiosity and discernment on Romney's part, and a suspicious familiarity with the thought and practices of the enemy. If Muslims fall into different classes and have different names, God will sort them out after we dispatch them.

[David Tomlin]

What Dan said.

What's the point of knowing the difference between factions of the enemy, except to be less tough on some of them? For those who only want maximal toughness against all enemies, such knowledge is suspicious.

[NYer]

David,

Do you think any of the Democratic candidates have articulated "an approach to extremist Islamist terrorism that reflects some understanding of the complexity and, dare we say it, subtleties, that must be dealt with to develop a successful set of policies."

I'd be interested in your thoughts along with citations to speeches, position papers, etc.

Thanks.

[David Tomlin]

Do you think any of the Democratic candidates have articulated "an approach to extremist Islamist terrorism that reflects some understanding of the complexity and, dare we say it, subtleties, that must be dealt with to develop a successful set of policies."

Not that I know of.

[Shadi Hamid]

NYer, it's one thing to have an approach to "extremist Islamist terrorism." Before you do that though, you need to actually know who the extremist Islamist terrorists are. The fact that Romney included the Muslim Brotherhood in the same category as Al-Qaeda and other jihadist groups, illustrates quite clearly that he knows absolutely nothing about anything having to do with issue. No one with even a cursory knowledge of the middle east and political islam would make such a basic error. as for romney's lumping together of shia and sunni, that's a different issue, although I suspect if you asked romney to distinguish between the two groups, he'd have no idea what to say. but why should romney care about distinguishing when he clearly thinks that all islamists are a monolithic bunch of irrational fanatical terrorists?

[NYer]

Shadi,

Thanks for responding. I think the criticism of Romney on this is probably well taken but I'm not convinced many of the Democratic candidates understand the problem in much of a better way, so it strikes me as unfair to single Romney out. If my impression of the Democratic candidates is mistaken I'd love to be corrected.

Recall that Silvestre Reyes, the new Democratic chairman of the House Intelligence Committee was completely befuddled when asked whether al Qaeda was Sunni or Shia.

http://public.cq.com/public/20061211_homeland.html

[NYer]

Although he's not running, I wonder what you guys think about this Democrat's (not Joe Lieberman) view of the Iraq situation.

http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110010107

[NYer]

Interestingly, the Guardian reports that "Iran is secretly forging ties with al-Qaida elements and Sunni Arab militias in Iraq in preparation for a summer showdown with coalition forces intended to tip a wavering US Congress into voting for full military withdrawal, US officials say."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,2085195,00.html

[Dan Kervick]

The fact that Romney included the Muslim Brotherhood in the same category as Al-Qaeda and other jihadist groups, illustrates quite clearly that he knows absolutely nothing about anything having to do with issue. No one with even a cursory knowledge of the middle east and political islam would make such a basic error.

Again, I doubt that it's that simple. I hear Romney is a smart guy. But he knows his audience. Right-wingers believe that the differences between these groups are not nearly as important as their similarities, and that whether Islamists seek to advance their agendas through violence, or through public works and the ballot box, they are all part of the great, global Islamofascist threat. Here is one of those winger warnings about the Muslim Brotherhood. The kind of people who eat this stuff up would probably argue that seeking to impress others with ones grasp of fine distinctions among Islamofascist groups only shows a potential weakness for compromise and appeasement, and a lack of moral clarity. By very pointedly throwing the Muslim Brotherhood in with the rest, Romney is attempting to signal to his audience that he's no appeasing peacenik fool. It's not that wingers don't know there are differences among the groups mentioned; it's that they don't think those differences are very significant in the long run.

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