In the past three days, “moderate” Mitt Romney, the putative GOP presidential nominee, even though not a single caucus or primary has been held, has sounded like John McCain and other GOP elected officials who want to perpetuate America’s failed foreign policy of invade, occupy and rule other nations.
Of course, Romney did not use those exact words, but that is the gist of his remarks about keeping America “strong” in a world of tyrants and “would be aggressors.”
In a speech at the Citadel in South Carolina, Romney called for more military spending, increasing the size of the armed forces and making sure the United States is “supreme” in the world. Romney asserted, “When America is strong, the world is safer.”
America will be “strong’ when the federal government’s fiscal house is in order, the federal government’s spending is restrained, the tax burden is lowered substantially, the Federal Reserve stops debasing the dollar, Congress repeals unnecessary regulations, and the federal government does not try to rule every region overseas. In short, our foreign policy should be about “America first.”
America should not send tens of billions of dollars overseas, which is mistakenly called “foreign aid,” nor should our soldiers police the world or invade other countries at the behest of the military-industrial complex. That means reducing military spending by tens and tens and tens of billions of dollars so we have a defense budget instead of spending hundreds of billions of dollars to maintain an overseas empire.
The federal government is a financial basket case and Romney wants to increase military spending by another $100 billion when the federal deficit was $1.3 trillion for the fiscal year that ended on September 30, 2011, and the national debt is closing in on $15 trillion. So savvy, successful executive Mitt Romney wants to increase the deficit or will raise taxes to keep American troops all over the world and build more weapons of mass destruction while the unemployment rate is still above 9% and the unofficial rate according to some estimates is more than 20%.
Romney apparently is playing to the crowd in South Carolina where many active and retired military personnel live. If Romney believes in the nonsensical remarks he made, then he is a fool and does not understand the geopolitical world we live in. If Romney believes that the national security interests of the United States do not require a far-flung empire overseas, then he is a charlatan because of the remarks he made. Whatever the truth is, Romney is unfit to be commander of chief.
Inasmuch as Romney has changed positions many times on key issues in recent years, he is unworthy to be president of the United States. A candidate should tell primary voters what are his political values. While Romney can sound like a proponent of limited government at times and articulate a free enterprise vision for the country, trying to outdo Obama on expanding the warfare state is more than troubling it is frightening.
Mitt Romney is no “moderate.” His foreign policy advisors include many former George W. Bush officials—the same crew that laid the foundation for a ten-year war in Afghanistan, planned the invasion of Iraq and are itching for a military showdown with Iran. In short, warmonger Mitt Romney cannot wait to have his little war(s) if he occupies the White House for four years. The American people cannot let than happen.