Is it worth moving heaven and earth and spending billions of dollars to get Osama?
Governor Romney: “Of course we get Osama bin Laden and track him wherever he has to go and make sure he pays for the outrage he exacted on America. … We’ll move everything to get him. But I don’t want to buy into the Democratic pitch, that this is all about one person, Osama bin Laden. Because after we get him, there’s going to be another and another. … This is a global effort we’re going to have to lead to overcome this jihadist effort. It’s more than Osama bin Laden. But he is going to pay, and he will die.” (MSNBC, Republican Presidential Candidate Debate, Simi Valley, CA, 5/3/07)
Is it worth moving heaven and earth and spending billions of dollars to get Osama?
Governor Gilmore of Virginia, when speaking about Osama bin Laden last week, Governor Romney said, quote, “It’s not worth moving heaven and Earth, spending billions of dollars just trying to catch one person.”
Senator McCain called that naive.
Who’s right?
Gilmore: You know, I think — well, I think we do have to do everything that we can do to get this guy, and the reason is because he is a symbol to the people who believe, as a matter of faith, that they have a right and a duty to destroy Americans and Western civilization.
The bigger, however, issue, is this: The Americans have to lead against the sea of hostility that was referred to earlier.
This is a serious challenge.
We can’t allow a situation where everyone, all the way from Morocco, all the way through the Middle East, all the way to the Philippines, believes that the United States does not have their best interests at heart.
During the Cold War — and I served as…
Moderator: If I would, is President Bush partly responsible for that, in your view?
Gilmore: This is what I think we have to do: What I think we have to do is to use all of our abilities, diplomatic and economic and military, above all things, put ourselves on the moral high ground, and let people across the world know that we are in the same shoes that we were in during the Cold War.
During the Cold War, we represented the aspirations of people everywhere in the world in good faith. And that now must be our policy, so that we in fact do deny those kinds of people and resources to the people who we can’t deal with diplomatically. And that, of course, is the Al Qaida type of fundamentalists.
Moderator: Governor Romney , respond to the mentioned reference to you…
Romney : Well, of course, we get…
(Laughter)
Moderator: … by Senator McCain.
(Laughter)
Romney : Thank you. Of course we get Osama bin Laden and track him wherever he has to go, and make sure he pays for the outrage he exacted upon America.
Moderator: Can we move heaven and earth to do it?
Romney **: We’ll move everything to get him. But I don’t want to buy into the Democratic pitch that this is all about one person — Osama bin Laden — because after we get him, there’s going to be another and another.
This is about Shia and Sunni. This is about Hezbollah and Hamas and Al Qaida and the Muslim Brotherhood. This is a worldwide jihadist effort to try and cause the collapse of all moderate Islamic governments and replace them with a caliphate.
They ultimately want to bring down the United States of America.
This is a global effort we’re going to have to lead to overcome this jihadist effort. It’s more than Osama bin Laden.
But he is going to pay, and he will die.