Governor Mitt Romney addressed a group of conservative House members at a Heritage Foundation retreat in Baltimore today. The presidential hopeful had some strong words for Hillary Clinton, whose position on Iran was met with groans from a pro-Israel audience last night at an AIPAC-sponsored dinner in New York . Here are the relevant bits from Romney:
Someone else considering a run for the White House recently addressed the Iran issue, and you won’t be surprised to find out that I don’t agree with her approach.
In a speech last night in New York City, Senator Hillary Clinton said that she needs to quote ‘understand’ unquote Iran better–and to help her with her education process, that we should quote ‘engage Iran’ unquote.
Friends, someone who doesn’t understand Iran hasn’t been paying attention–at this point, we don’t need a listening tour with Iran. While I support gathering intelligence about our adversaries in any way possible, engaging is not the right policy. To the contrary, economic and diplomatic isolation must be our priority.
Indeed, she argued that our strategy of engagement with the Soviet Union during the Cold War was a model for how we could deal with Iran. Now, for all the former Soviet Union’s flaws, at least they maintained a commitment to national survival. They were not suicidal. The same cannot be said about the Iranian regime. And we must stop making analogies that are disconnected from the world in which we operate.
And someone who wants to engage Iran displays a troubling timidity towards a terrible threat.
You can read more about Romney’s appearance over at Red State.
