Romney Says Iraq in “Low Level” Civil War
Massachusetts Governor and Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney was in town yesterday as the keynote speaker for annual state Republican Party dinner. He got a warm reception and is a very personable fellow, but as one GOP member put it, “he came across as clinically optimistic.” Romney hit all the main points, the war on terror, education, etc. However he did make a couple gaffs. He said “every child deserves a mother and father” which I thought they already had. And when it comes to health care, “poor people just don’t stay home and die” they go to the emergency room. Those were easy misstatements I can forgive.
But perhaps what surprised me the most was during the press availability afterwards. While chastising Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for saying Iraq was lost, he said Iraq was now in a civil war. He says the U.S. won the war when it beat Saddam Hussein and is now in the nation building process and trying support the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki. He says Iraq is in a “low-level civil war.” He says he supports the President’s surge and the U.S. should know in a few months whether the surge is working. He says he doesn’t give the surge a 100 percent chance of working because of the insurgency and sectarian violence.
