Romney: Hezbollah as a model---to win hearts and minds.

[rodeodance]

He is right.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2007/08/02/romney_soft_on_terror.html#more


Republicans' Velvet Glove Approach to Terror

Barack Obama made waves yesterday with the hawkish tone of his speech on terrorism, which, with its pledge to hunt down terrorists in Pakistan without local permission if necessary, seemed designed to counter Hillary Rodham Clinton's claims that he is "naive and irresponsible" when it comes to global threats.

Less noted, though, is that there are the makings of an inverse transformation underway among GOP candidates in the way they are talking about combatting terrorism. Since the 2001 attacks, Republicans have tended to mock Democratic calls for increased diplomacy and foreign aid as a way to cut off Islamic extremism at its roots, noting, among other things, that many terrorist plotters tend in fact not to come from the poorest sectors of Muslim countries.

But, based on what's being said on the campaign trail, there appears to be a growing recognition among Republicans that protecting the country may require more than military intervention and that the nation's battered image abroad may in fact be a cause for concern.

.......

And now, one of the frontrunners is taking a similar line. At a town hall meeting in Iowa on Friday, Mitt Romney offered an eye-catching twist on his usual stump speech when he held up Hezbollah as a model for the effectiveness of using social services as a way to win hearts and minds. "Did you notice in Lebanon what Hezbollah did? Lebanon became a democracy some time ago. And while their government was getting underway, Hezbollah went into southern Lebanon and provided health clinics to some of the people there and schools, and they built their support by having done so," Romney said. "That kind of diplomacy is something that would help America become stronger around the world and help people understand that our interest is an interest toward modernity and goodness and freedom for all people of the world."

[rodeodance]

1. I recall that the day after the Israel-Lebanon incursion---there was Hezbollah

out there with bulldozers clearning up the city, getting services back on line -----while Rice was convening a conference of EU and ME countries to get aid and $$.