Take in all the drawbacks of a Romney candidacy that you will, but the unspoken one I "hear" most is the question of his Mormonism. Right or wrong, it is there.
Harry Reid is a Mormon.
Are these two men from the same planet, let alone the same church? Reid's pugnacious rope-a-dope style of defeatism is quite opposite that of Romney's bright eyed can-doism, but both men have had some success with their own style.
I think the true difference is Reid's personal agenda versus Romney's apparent style of serving the greater good. Which is an agenda of trust? Which is a style that people can trust?
More importantly, which agenda or style is one which will engender in others, say Iraqis, to trust the United States of America? This is kinda important in international relations even beyond Iraq and Afghanistan.
It should come as no surprise to anyone in the placid West that
ordinary Iraqis have been slow to rise in defense of their neighborhoods and to
join with the Americans in pursuing that task. They have simply been hedging
their bets. And why not? The antiwar declarations of the U.S. media, the
cultural elites, American academics and high profile Democratic Party
politicians tell them that America will abandon them.
Why would Iraqis join with the Americans, risking their necks, if
they believe the Americans will leave before the terrorists were defeated? Why
should ordinary Iraqis work with American soldiers in hunting down terrorists
when prominent Americans like John Kerry, Richard Durbin, Barack Obama, Edward Kennedy, John Murtha and Michael Moore tell them that those soldiers are as cold and as brutal as the terrorists destroying their families, and America’s most publicized civilian activist, Cindy Sheehan, is telling them that the man
leading those soldiers, George W. Bush, is the world’s biggest terrorist?
Is Mormonism our Sunni against our other Shia versions of the same religion? No, not now. There was a time when Mormons were literally hunted and killed. There was a time when Mormons hunted and killed other humans they disagreed with on religious and cultural issues. Isn't the fact that we, as a people, have evolved beyond to this newer sense of safety, an important fact when judging the differences of the people of Iraq, especially in view of the tragic history they have endured under Hussein and the current events of professional religious murderers in their midst?
I have known and worked with Mormons and I will admit their world view and their view of history seems a bit off to me, but then so do those of some other groups including some groups I would be considered a member of.
I believe Mormonism has made a positive effect on Romney. Reid? Who knows. I do know Reid is not to be trusted.
And so do the Iraqi people.
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