Mitt Romney's Inflammatory Comments on Iran

In lieu of having facts or any ideas about how to fix the multitude of issues that face this country our Republican candidates, have decided to muddy the waters with fiery comments regarding Iran at a time when President Obama is trying to give diplomacy and sanctions a chance to work..

Former Governor Mitt Romney and current Republican candidate for President of the United States has decided to invoke E.S.P. and claim that Iran has an active nuclear weapons program in an op-ed piece he wrote for yesterday's Washington Post. This claim has come in the face of the facts as presented by the entire U.S. intelligence community and the IAEA inspectors.

According to Mitt Romney :

Republican Presidential Candidate
Mitt Romney 

America and the world face a strikingly similar situation today; only even more is at stake. The same Islamic fanatics who took our diplomats hostage are racing to build a nuclear bomb. Barack Obama, America’s most feckless president since Carter, has declared such an outcome unacceptable, but his rhetoric has not been matched by an effective policy. While Obama frets in the White House, the Iranians are making rapid progress toward obtaining the most destructive weapons in the history of the world. [...]

Until Iran ceases its nuclear-bomb program, I will press for ever-tightening sanctions, acting with other countries if we can but alone if we must.

This kind of rhetoric is not at all helpful. Mr. Romney is neither privy to U.S. national intelligence, nor any communications between the U.S. and it's allies regarding Iran. Based on this, I'm not sure where he received his facts from.

Today, former Mossad chief Efraim Halevy said Mitt Romney's gibes at President Obama's Iran policy were irresponsible.

"This means to an Iranian, if you will wait until another few months and there is a change in the White House, then maybe there will be trouble, so the lesson is, let's redouble our efforts to do it as quickly as we can," Halevy said in an interview with The Huffington Post posted Wednesday. "In the effort to demolish the president he is making the situation worse."

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who has clashed with Obama on Israel-Palestinian issues, said in a conference call organized by the Democratic National Committee that the president's efforts to isolate Iran have paid off and do not merit the GOP shots.

"Some of the Republican candidates for president have been misrepresenting the president’s unwavering commitment to Israel and stopping Iran from getting a nuclear weapon," he said. "And I find, on something as important as this, when the safety of millions of Israelis and of the whole world hangs in the balance, to be so blatantly political is something that is just so uncalled for."

Romney is not the only GOP candidate to slam Obama for his handling of Iran. He and Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the U.S. House of representatives, and Rick Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator, made such attacks the centerpieces of their addresses this week to the annual policy conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

The war hawks need to step back and allow those who are intimately familiar with the situation handle it. I would think President Obama and Mr. Halevy would know more than all of the armchair generals out their including our Republican candidates. War is not a minor issue and must be used sparingly.