Monday, October 15, 2012

Romney Gets It Wrong Again!

The situation in Syria and the assassination of our ambassador in Libya has given the Romney campaign an opportunity to ramp up its criticism of the president’s foreign policy.  Romney and his surrogates are fond of calling the president “weak” and referring to his strategies as “leading from behind.”  They have taken great pains to lay blame for the ambassador’s death at the president’s feet; alleging that his “apologetic tone” has emboldened our enemies to launch these attacks.  Mr. Romney and his foreign policy buddies, John McCain and Lindsey Graham prefer a more aggressive approach.
Once again let’s look at the facts.
Romney recently gave a self proclaimed major foreign policy address in which he presented his ideas for dealing with our overseas problems.  His intent was to lay out the stark differences between his ideas and those of the president’s.  Ironically, when the dust settled we learned that all the aspects of Romney’s plan had already been put in place by President Obama.
To be fair there are some differences. 
Governor Romney would have us increase our military spending by $2 trillion dollars.  He has listed a host of warships and military aircraft that he would build to add to our arsenal. 
Romney has two problems here.  The first is that the defense department has said that they neither need nor want the new armaments that Romney is proposing.   The second is that his calls for a mammoth increase in military spending fly in the face of his constant complaints about the debt and deficit spending.  Adjusted for inflation, Romney’s  proposed budgetary increase would set our military spending at the highest levels in our history…far exceeding what we spent during the cold war.  Apparently he has no problem borrowing money from China to purchase weapons the defense department doesn’t want.
The other area of disagreement between the governor and the president lies in their willingness to help the rebels fighting in Syria.
 Romney and his pals want us to arm the rebels …now.  He blames the president’s reticence to do so as the primary reason that 25,000 Syrian civilians have perished at the hands of Assad’s military. 
The president has taken a more cautionary approach.  The administration believes that Al Qaeda operatives have infiltrated the less than organized rebel ranks.  They fear that any weapons intended for the over throw of Assad might well end up in the hands of Al Qaeda or the Taliban.
It turns out that the president is correct on this one.  A recent report aired on “60 Minutes” and echoed by several leading newspapers shows how Al Qaeda has in fact wormed its way into the rebellion. Weapons provided by other Middle Eastern countries intent on assisting the rebels are now in the hands of Al Qaeda operatives.  While the administration supports the rebels in their fight and has specifically called for Assad to step down they are unwilling to supply arms to a movement that will cozy up with the likes of Al Qaeda or anyone else offering assistance.

This is not the first time that we have seen Romney’s aggressiveness on foreign policy blow up in his face.  He was so eager to politicize the assassination of Ambassador Stevens that his ill timed/hastily called news conference was short on facts and long on embarrassment.  His decision to use a chance meeting with Glenn Doherty, one of the marines killed in the embassy attack, in a stump speech was met with anger on the part of the young man’s parents.  During the speech Romney recalled how Doherty rushed into the fray to help the embassy staff rather than hunkering down in safety.    “This is what Americans do.” Romney said.  “They (the world) need us.”   (Us!  Who is Romney talking about when he says “us?”  This is the same Romney who marched in SUPPORT of the Vietnam War but took advantage of his deferments to avoid entering the fray himself.)
 Upon learning of Romney’s comments Doherty’s parents reacted in anger.  They called on the governor to stop using their son’s death for political gains.  The Romney campaign ceased repeating the story on subsequent campaign stops.
Romney’s shoot first ask questions later strategy is dangerous.  If you screw up on domestic policy you might cause yourself some embarrassment.  But if you screw up on foreign policy you just might cause a war.
We prefer the president’s more thoughtful approach.                        
    

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