Romney Slams Obama on Military Weakness

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright July 24, 2012
All Rights Reserved.                                         

             Speaking to Veterans of Foreign Wars in Reno, Nevada, GOP presidential nominee former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney ripped President Barack Obama for weakening the U.S. military.  Romney cites White House security leaks about covert military activities.  Citing Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D-Calif.) about media leaks, Romney makes the case that Obama isn’t fit to serve as commander-in-chief.  “This isn’t a partisan issue.  It’s a national security crisis,” said Romney, mentioning nothing about national security breaches in the past Bush administration, where covert CIA operative Valerie Plame was outed by Vice President Dick Cheney, through his Chief of Staff I. Louis “Scooter” Libby.  Romney didn’t say boo when Plame’s identity was revealed by the White House to the late Chicago Sun Times columnist Robert Novak in the Washington Post July 14, 2003.

            Romney didn’t mention how the Obama administration blindsided the world with its covert operation to capture or kill Osama bin Laden May 1, 2011.  No one in the media mentioned a thing about how covert Operation Geronimo performed by Navy Seals penetrated Pakistani security and landed helicopters inside Bin Laden’s Abbottabad compound.  Mitt doesn’t talk about how Barack fulfilled his campaign promise of ending the Iraq War Dec. 14, 2011.  Regarding inconsequential leaks to the media:  “This conduct is contemptible.  It betrays our national interests.  It compromises our men and women in the field  . . . .” said Romney, cherry-picking where he places his blame.  Romney was a real team player saying nothing when Libby was eventually convicted of  perjury March 7, 2007.  Where was Mitt’s outrage when no weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq?

            Mitt wants the same kind of investigation as GOP partisan Rep. Darrell Issa  (R-Calif.) conducted against Atty. Gen. Eric Holder, hoping to score points on Obama during an Election Year.  Making allegations, talking about investigations and hitting the White House with a cream pie isn’t foreign policy.  “And it demands a full and prompt investigation, with explanation and consequences.  Whoever provided classified information to the media, seeking political advantage for the administration, must be exposed, dismissed and punished.  The time for stonewalling is over,” said Romney, hoping to heap more bad publicity on the White House before November.  Mitt plans to attend the opening of the London Olympics to burnish his foreign policy credentials meeting with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Polish President Bronislaw Komorowoski.

            Suggesting Barack has led a feckless foreign policy, Romney wants to tout American exceptionalism, suggesting that the White House has weakened U.S. prestige abroad.  All international polls shows that Obama’s approval ratings are far greater than former President George W. Bush.  Suggesting that Barack apologizes for American power, Romney doesn’t admit the damage done by the last GOP administration.  Surely Romney doesn’t believe that spending over a $1 trillion tax dollars on Iraq and losing more that 4,500 U.S. soldiers showed American exceptionalism.  Driving the economy into the worst recession since the Great Depression did nothing to bolster U.S. credibility at home or abroad.  Romney agreed with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) who called on Obama to start bombing Syria March 5, 2012.  Instead of starting new foreign wars, Romney should talk about avoiding them.

            Romney accuses Obama of failing to accept America’s lead as the last remaining superpower.  “I am not ashamed of American power.  I take pride that throughout history our power has brought justice where there was tyranny, peace where there was conflict, and hope where there was affliction and despair,” said Mitt, suggesting he’d be more adventurous that Barack.  Since Bush’s colossal miscalculation in Iraq, American foreign policy and military action has lost its way.  Foreign countries, once admiring U.S.,  now view the U.S. from an aggressive prism.  Romney acts like the U.S. has just finished WW II and has the political capital to assert influence around the globe.  Vietnam taught the U.S. a bitter lesson about its global reach and ignorance of indigenous political history.  Since bankrupting the county with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Barack has shown appropriate restraint.

            Speaking to Veterans of Foreign Wars, Romney suggests he’d increase the military budget at a time of slow economic growth and massive federal budget deficits.  If, as Mitt promises, he’s going to restore Barack’s proposed defense cuts, he’s going to have to subtract commitments to domestic spending.  Without naming specifics, Mitt has implied he plans to reduce the size and scope of the federal establishment.  To preserve the military budget, he’d have to hack deeply into domestic spending programs, including Social Security, Medicare and what’s left of other social programs.  Because Mitt has signed onto GOP party boss Grover Norquist’s no tax pledge, he can only reduce deficits by imposing a hiring freeze and laying off federal workers.  “Strategy is not driving President Obama’s massive defense cuts . . “ said Mitt, not realizing that fiscal restraint also applies to the Pentagon.

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com.and author of Dodging the Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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