You care about foreign policy.

As was made evident in the final presidential debate, Romney has virtually no new ideas about foreign policy, and what few thoughts of his own he does have are incorrect, completely outdated, or dangerous.

In his now infamous “47 Percent” talk, he said, “And so what you do is you say you move things along the best way you can. You hope for some degree of stability, but you recognize that it's going to remain an unsolved problem. I mean, we look at that in China and Taiwan. All right, we have a potentially volatile situation, but we sort of live with it. And we kick the ball down the field and hope that ultimately, somehow, something will happen and resolve.”1

In an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on March 26, 2012, Romney stated, “Russia, this is, without question, our number one geopolitical foe.”2  And in the third debate, he stated that “Syria is Iran’s only ally in the Arab world. It’s their route to the sea.”3 (Remarkable, considering that Syria doesn’t share a border with Iran, and that Iran has 1,500 miles of coastline leading to the Arabian Sea.)

Perhaps most cynical and disturbing of all, Romney and Ryan have accused the Obama Administration of  politicizing the embassy attack in Benghazi,4 in which four Americans were killed, while themselves politicizing it—while it is still under investigation—and despite the fact that Ryan voted to cut5 funding for Embassy security requested by the Obama Administration.

House Republicans cut the administration’s request for embassy security funding by $128 million in FY 2011 and $331 million in FY 2012.6  As with many other issues the problem lies with the Republican party, not just Romney and Ryan.  In this case, many Republicans voted to cut funding for embassy security7 and quoting Rachel Maddow, “Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned that Republicans' proposed cuts to her department would be "detrimental to America's national security"—a charge Republicans rejected.”8

As Maddow has frequently pointed out, this is a tactic right out of the Karl Rove playbook; engage in some nefarious activity, then accuse your opponent of doing it. Also 17 of his 24 foreign policy advisors worked for George W. Bush!

Do we need more Bush policies?

  1. The Full Transcript of the Mitt Romney Secret Video, Sep 19, 2012  Mother Jones
  2. CNN’s The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, Mar 26, 2012
  3. Romney told 24 myths in 41 minutes by Igor Volsky (ThinkProgress.org)
  4. Obama, Romney, Confrontational in Second Debate by Jonathan Easley, Oct 16, 2012 (The Hill)
  5. GOP cut half billion from embassy security before Libya attack by John Aravosis, Oct 15, 2012 (AmericaBlog)
  6. Forget Big Bird. What about the Snuffleupagus in the room? by Dana Milbank, Oct 9, 2012 (the Washington Post)
  7. Right-Wing Media's Libya Consulate Security Mythology Falls Apart by Remington Shepard, Oct 10, 2012 (MediaMatters)
  8. The GOP’s Embassy Security Problem by Steve Benen, Oct 10, 2012 (The Maddow Blog)