Matthew Yglesias on Mitt Romney’s trawler-sized net of Islamic bad guys:

To put it bluntly, the trouble here is that the Muslim Brotherhood just isn’t a violent terrorist organization, and certainly doesn’t commit acts of violence against the United States. It’s an extremely traditionalist multinational civil society organization. It’s true that a lot of violent types used to be in the Brotherhood and now they’re in terrorist groups, but used to be is the key phrase here, they left the Brotherhood because the Brotherhood wouldn’t sign on for their agenda. In one clause, Romney’s just gone and broadened the war to include a huge new category of people who have no intention of waging war against the United States or even against Israel.

Note that even without the Muslim Brotherhood bit, this is a terrible idea. If you liked Iraq, you’re going to love trying to root Hezbollah out of southern Lebanon and Hamas out of the West Bank. Check out Spencer’s remarks on this as well. He notes that “it’s hardly remarkable that Romney doesn’t know what he’s talking about.” It isn’t surprising, but then again this point needs to be driven home again and again — Mitt Romney displayed zero understanding of political Islam or global terrorism, none of his Republican opponents called him on it, and as far as I know, nobody in the press (the same press, you’ll recall, that’s concerned with the Pursuit of Truth above all else) bothered to notice.

Understanding who the different players in Islamic politics, radical or otherwise, has not been a Republican strong suit over the last seven years. It’s not surprising that Romney will paint with an oversized, novelty brush because he’s perpetuating false impressions held by the fear-mongering Republican base. But Romney’s lack of education as to who and what different Islamic groups are, when taken at the presidential level, is a potential risk for escalating and expanding the field from legitimate enemies of the United States to anyone who would fit snugly on the business end of a crusade.

Words mean things. As a presidential candidate, if you don’t know what you’re saying, you shouldn’t speak.