Romney Makes Surprise Visit To Iraq

Governor Mitt Romney made a surprise visit to Iraq this week, a move that will undoubtedly cause the rabid anti-Republican, anti-American left wing in Massachusetts to criticize him (of course, everything he does, and doesn’t do makes them unleash fury).

Gov. Mitt Romney made an unannounced visit to Iraq this week, an effort to visit Massachusetts troops and understand an international hotspot that could also burnish his foreign policy credentials should he run for president in 2008.

The Republican governor met with military and diplomatic leaders in Baghdad on Tuesday and Wednesday, before returning to a United States staging area in Kuwait City, Kuwait, according to his communications director, Eric Fehrnstrom.

Romney is scheduled to stop in Pakistan on Thursday en route to Afghanistan, where he will meet with President Hamid Karzai. After an overnight stay at the U.S. embassy in Kabul, Romney will fly to Ramstein Air Base in Germany on Friday. The governor is scheduled to return to Massachusetts on Saturday.

The opening stage of the trip, which began Monday with a military flight to Kuwait from Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington, was made under a reporting embargo requested by the Department of Defense. Pentagon officials said advance publicity about visits by high-profile U.S. delegations can inspire violence by Iraqi insurgent groups.

“The request was put in many months ago, but the invitation was finally received just recently,” Fehrnstrom said in a statement. “If this opportunity did not arise, the governor would have regretted never visiting our troops who are serving in harm’s way.”

Fehrnstrom added: “The trip is partly educational, but its primary purpose is to allow the governor to visit our National Guard and active duty troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, in order to recognize them for their sacrifice and service.”

Stuart Rothenberg, an independent political analyst in Washington, sees the trip benefiting Romney should he run for president. The governor is not seeking re-election this fall and has acknowledged assessing a 2008 White House campaign. He has no military service.

“This kind of trip is an effort to credential him, to some extent, to bring him up to speed on the issues, to let him say he was there on the ground, seeing things first hand, to give him experience that he can talk about on the stump,” Rothenberg said. “These days, I don’t think you can run for president without a background in – or an ability to fake a background in – national security issues.”

Romney was accompanied by two other governors, Brian Schweitzer (D-MN), and Matt Blunt (R-MO).

Aaron Margolis is a life long resident of the Bay State, and works at an architectural firm north of Boston. Aaron has a Master of Architecture Degree from Boston Architectural College and is currently in the process of becoming of a Registered Architect.

One Response to “Romney Makes Surprise Visit To Iraq”

1. jeffery mcnary says:

   May 24, 2006 at 1:43 pm

   will that’s a bit much. he’s still governor of mass and they’re shooting up roxbury and mattapan. maybe he should just leave the corner office to ms. healey and be genuine for once. how weird. ambition is one thing but this is a heck of a way to deal with a midlife crisis. maybe he should just buy a motorcycle. by the time the national repubs lay into him, he may well wish he had.