Romney Foreign Policy, and Public Opinion on Middle East We'll have an editorial up soon on Mitt Romney's foreign policy speech at the Virginia Military Institute, but I wanted to quickly draw attention to his comments on Syria and Iran, and to a new survey of American public opinion on the Middle East. With regards to Syria, Mr. Romney said he would "work with our partners to identify and organize those members of the opposition who share our values and ensure they obtain the arms they need to defeat Assad's tanks, helicopters, and fighter jets." That's a bit short of a promise to directly provide weaponry to the opposition ("ensure they obtain" versus "give"). It simultaneously makes the candidate sound fairly hawkish, while giving him room to maneuver. And of course Mr. Romney is not president so it's easy to talk and a lot harder to act. As for Iran, he said he would "not hesitate to impose new sanctions" and that it was imperative to make clear "through actions" that "nuclear pursuits will not be tolerated." Mr. Romney is trying to sound like he's tougher on Iran than President Obama, but he's not actually threatening military action - which is about the only thing that would be tougher than what Mr. Obama is already doing or planning to do. Now here's what Americans think, according to a poll conducted by Knowledge Networks for the University of Maryland's Program on International Policy Attitudes, and disseminated by Brookings. It has a margin of error of 4.6 percentage points. Americans support increasing sanctions against Syria, but overwhelmingly oppose arming anti-government groups, much less actually sending troops. By the numbers: 60 percent support sanctions, 22 percent support arming rebels, and 13 percent support sending troops. Americans also don't seem to have much of an appetite for a more aggressive relationship with Iran. Only 12 percent said the U.S. should encourage Israel to attack, 53 percent want a neutral stance, and 29 percent want the U.S. to discourage Israel from attacking. A full 55 percent said the U.S.'s strategic position would be worse if Israel were to attack Iran.