Monday, October 8, 2012

Governor Romney's Foreign Policy Speech

The Governor gave a good, solid, very American speech on foreign affairs at the Virginia Military Institute. The Obama campaign, predictably, has launched an attack (h/t Drudge Report) on Romney's foreign policy as being to the right of George Bush. They, of course, launched their nonsensical attack BEFORE Romney gave his speech--weren't they the ones who criticized the Governor for "prematurely" criticizing attacks on the American Embassy in Cairo? I find, of course, that to attack a foreign policy for being to the right of Bush's is a compliment: we should reject vast, expensive, and ultimately futile Third-World-nation-building exercises, the bane of our policy in Afghanistan.

He laid out what had been the American consensus on foreign policy for most of the post-WWII era: the idea that the United States would have a military capability second to none; that friends and foes would know what we could and would do; and that our goal was not conquest but a world engaged in peaceful trade. He showed that he has much clearer vision than Obama of what we face in the Middle East,
The attack on our Consulate in Benghazi on September 11th, 2012 was likely the work of forces affiliated with those that attacked our homeland on September 11th, 2001. This latest assault cannot be blamed on a reprehensible video insulting Islam, despite the Administration’s attempts to convince us of that for so long. No, as the Administration has finally conceded, these attacks were the deliberate work of terrorists who use violence to impose their dark ideology on others, especially women and girls; who are fighting to control much of the Middle East today; and who seek to wage perpetual war on the West.
He also reaffirmed the view of the United States as an indispensable and exceptional country,
This is what makes America exceptional: It is not just the character of our country—it is the record of our accomplishments. America has a proud history of strong, confident, principled global leadership—a history that has been written by patriots of both parties. That is America at its best. And it is the standard by which we measure every President, as well as anyone who wishes to be President. Unfortunately, this President’s policies have not been equal to our best examples of world leadership. And nowhere is this more evident than in the Middle East.
It is a good compelling vision, one that predominated in both parties until the Democrats went insane.
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6 comments:

  1. AnonymousOctober 8, 2012 at 10:07 PM

    Here's the video:

    http://www.c-span.org/Campaign2012/Events/Mitt-Romney-Delivers-Major-Foreign-Policy-Speech/10737434742-1/

    Unfortunately, I was unable to figure out how to download it to mp3.

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  2. AnonymousOctober 8, 2012 at 10:08 PM

    Let's try that again, this time as a hyperlink.

    http://www.c-span.org/Campaign2012/Events/Mitt-Romney-Delivers-Major-Foreign-Policy-Speech/10737434742-1/

    ReplyDelete
  3. FOctober 9, 2012 at 12:09 PM

    Dip:

    I was going to take exception to calling the Democrats insane. After thinking about it a while, though, I've come to the realization that's a good conclusion if you accept the definition of insanity "doing the same thing over and expecting different results." Yep, as a political party, that's right about where they are. California might just be the very best example.

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  4. babsOctober 9, 2012 at 12:26 PM

    I don't know Dip but, what I can discern from reading comments on news reports is that the American people do not want to get involved in yet another middle east fight. They do not want to involve the US with either money or a no fly zone in Syria.
    It seemed to me that the comments were 10 to 1 for letting the Muslims kill each other off... That the US citizens were sick and tired of being playground monitors for no benefit to ourselves.
    I have wondered over the last several years if the situation in the ME were so egregious why don't the wealthy Arab nations do something about it? Why don't they institute a no fly zone over Syria? God knows we have sold them enough jets and trained enough pilots to do so (there were several KSA students in my son's flight class.)
    No, the oil rich countries are used to holding our coat while we bleed and die. When push comes to shove the oil nations pull out the old meme that it is a sin to kill another Muslim... Funny thing, they do it every day in droves.
    While I do feel sorry that the country of Syria is being destroyed, I do not feel obligated to borrow money from China and put our young men and women in harms way to stop it. If the Muslim world wanted this to stop they would stop it.

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  5. babsOctober 9, 2012 at 12:35 PM

    Let's see KSA, Oman and Qater put boots on the ground and jets in the sky. Only then would I be willing to send arms, etc to Syria.
    IIMO that will never happen. The Muslim world doesn't care about human life like we do and a point has to come when we allow them to slaughter their own.
    We are broke...

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  6. WhitehallOctober 9, 2012 at 1:25 PM

    I thought that Bush didn't try nation building in Afghanstan but instead just put enough effort into holding the territory against encourchment by others. Seemed a reasonable investment of resources, one that Obama changed into a huge wasted effort.

    Iraq always had better chances and a much higher payback from nation building. Bush got us and them into the right space to proceed but Obama just walked away, leaving it open to subversion and decay into a new dictatorship.

    Romney has the right ideas but will have to pickup play after Obama lost most of our pile of chips. With all that oil, we can't just let the worst sort move in and take over. With control of that cheap energy, whoever has control will have the whip hand economically and strategicly.

    ReplyDelete