U.S. Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry drew Turkey’s ire on Tuesday after suggesting the country is ruled by Islamic terrorists and questioning its NATO membership.
Turkey’s Foreign Ministry released a scathing statement saying Perry’s comments were “baseless and inappropriate” and that the United States has no time to waste with candidates “who do not even know their allies.”
The U.S. State Department also distanced the U.S. government from Perry’s remarks late Tuesday. “We absolutely and fundamentally disagree with that assertion,” spokesman Mark Toner said.
Rick Perry's remarks came at the heels of Mitt Romney's anti-European remarks in New Hampshire where he said Obama “wants to turn America into a European-style social welfare state society. We want to ensure that we remain a free and prosperous land of opportunity. This President takes his inspiration from the capitals of Europe; we look to the cities and small towns of America."
Romney’s rhetorical attack — on Obama, and on Europe — made clear that he’srunning for president of the United States in part by running against European values.
The anti-European vitriol came not just from Romney, but from all the Republican candidates, said Willem Post, an American politics expert with the Dutch Clingendael Institute of International Relations who returned from New Hampshire on Wednesday.
Most Europeans believe Romney and his other Republican cohorts won’t succeed. They say Americans are smarter than these guys think. American voters know that bashing Europe will not fix major US issues. Americans will vote for the person with the best plan to solve their economic problems.
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