“Syria is Iran’s only ally in the Arab world. It’s their route to the sea. It’s the route for them to arm Hezbollah in Lebanon, which threatens, of course, our ally, Israel. And so seeing Syria remove Assad is a very high priority for us” (Mitt Romney, presidential debate, October 23, 2012)

In an article entitled, “Romnography”: Where’s the Persian Gulf? Epic Fail”, writer Michel Chussadovsky, corrects candidate Romney’s geographic view.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran has an extensive maritime coastline bordering onto the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman and Arabian Sea.

“Iran is an ally of Syria but it does not have a border with Syria.

“For Iran’s commodity trade to reach the Mediterranean by land through Syria would require transit through Iraq (under US military occupation) and/or Turkey, a US ally and NATO stronghold.

“Epic Fail, D+ Romney has a degree from Harvard. So much for University standards.”

He continues.

“But let us analyze a more serious issue:

“What are the potential geopolitical consequences of Mitt Romney’s sheer ignorance were he to become President and Commander in Chief of the United States of America?

“One recall’s that George W. Bush at the height of his election campaign in 2000 thought the Taliban were a “rock group”:

“When a Glamor correspondent asked Governor Bush what he thought about the Taliban, he just shrugged his shoulders, bemused. It took a bit of prompting from the journalist (“discrimination against women in Afghanistan”) for Bush to rouse himself: Taliban in Afghanistan! Absolutely. Reprisals. I thought you were talking about some rock group.

“That’s how well-informed about the outside world the prospective U.S. president is. Even about very important present-day developments that are on everyone’s lips – that is, everyone with the slightest pretensions to culture; developments that he, if elected, will have to deal with. (Moscow News, July 2000)

“The next president of the US will have to make some fundamental decisions of a diplomatic, strategic and military nature with regard to Iran, which require an understanding of both geography and geopolitics.”

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