Mitt Romney promised Monday to restore U.S. foreign policy to a traditional role dating back decades, based on exerting global influence through military and economic power, in a major speech two weeks before he debates President Barack Obama on international issues.
In the address at the
Virginia Military Institute, Romney argued that Obama is failing to
provide the global leadership needed and expected by the rest of the
world, especially key allies such as Israel.
Romney cited recent
protests and violence in Arab countries, including an attack on a U.S.
diplomatic compound in Libya that killed the American ambassador and
three others, as examples of a worsening security situation that he
blamed on Obama's policies.
"It is our responsibility
and the responsibility of our president to use America's great power to
shape history — not to lead from behind, leaving our destiny at the
mercy of events," the Republican presidential nominee said, after
earlier declaring that "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."
Romney's running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, offered a similar criticism on Monday at a campaign appearance in Ohio.
"If you look around the
world, what we are witnessing is the unraveling of the Obama foreign
policy," the conservative House Budget Committee chairman said, later
adding that "if we project weakness abroad, our adversaries are that
much more willing to test us, to question our resolve."
In response to Romney's
speech, White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters that the GOP
candidate's positions are in most cases similar to Obama's policies,
while former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright accused Romney of
repeatedly shifting his views.
"I watched the speech
with great interest trying to figure out what Governor Romney's policies
really are," Albright said on a conference call with reporters set up
by the Obama campaign. "This is, I think, the seventh speech he has
given on foreign policy over the years, but I think I have come out more
confused because he has changed his mind on a number of different
issues."
In specific policy
examples, Romney called for the United States to join allies in ensuring
that rebels fighting government forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad get the military hardware they seek. However, he stopped short
of calls by some conservatives for Washington to directly arm the
rebels.
"In Syria, I will work
with our partners to identify and organize those members of the
opposition who share our values and ensure they obtain the arms they
need to defeat Assad's tanks, helicopters, and fighter jets," Romney
said.
He noted that Iran is sending weaponry to Assad's forces "because they know his downfall would be a strategic defeat for them."
"We should be working no
less vigorously through our international partners to support the many
Syrians who would deliver that defeat to Iran -- rather than sitting on
the sidelines," Romney said, making a change from the advance text of
the speech that originally called for working "with" international
partners. "It is essential that we develop influence with those forces
in Syria that will one day lead a country that sits at the heart of the
Middle East."
The Obama administration
has limited direct aid so far to non-lethal support such as
communications equipment. In addition, the United States is vetting
rebels and working with Qatar and Saudi Arabia to make sure weapons go
to preferred groups.
Administration officials
have expressed concern about giving weapons to unvetted rebels for fear
that the arms could fall into the hands of terrorists.
Romney also criticized
Obama's overall approach to the Arab Spring uprisings in the Middle East
and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
He argued that last
month's attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, that
killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans
"should not be seen as random."
Instead, Romney said the
violence "was likely the work of the same forces affiliated with those
that attacked our homeland on September 11th, 2001," making a change
from excerpts released in advance that described the attackers as likely
the same forces from 9//11.
The recent assault in
Benghazi, which took place on the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks
on New York and Washington by al Qaeda, is under investigation by U.S.
officials, with no formal word yet on exactly who was behind it.
In the United States,
the intelligence community believes it was "a deliberate and organized
terrorist assault carried out by extremists" affiliated with or
sympathetic to al Qaeda.
The Obama administration
has been criticized for initially blaming the attack on protests over
an anti-Islam film produced in the United States, then acknowledging it
was a terrorist attack.
While Romney sought to
distinguish himself from Obama on foreign policy, specific proposals he
cited remained similar to what the administration is doing.
For example, he called
for ending military operations in Afghanistan by the end of the 2014,
the same date set by Obama and NATO, and warned of unspecified steps to
stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. Obama has said all options
remain on the table for preventing an Iranian nuclear weapon.
In one distinction,
Romney said Monday that under his leadership, "the United States and our
friends and allies will prevent them from acquiring nuclear weapons
capability," which differs from Obama's pledge to stop Iran from getting
a nuclear weapon.
Nuclear capability
refers to the process of being able to develop a nuclear weapon -- a
lower threshold than Obama's reference -- and Romney's language matched
that of his former business colleague, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu, on the issue.
Polls show Obama gets
higher marks than Romney on foreign policy, and the former Massachusetts
governor hurt his international credentials on a three-nation trip this
summer that included a high-profile gaffe in which he questioned
London's preparedness to host the Olympics.
Romney also angered
Palestinian leaders with a reference to cultural differences as a reason
for differing levels of prosperity between Israel and the Palestinian
territories.
In addition, a secretly
recorded video of a private campaign event in May showed Romney casting
doubt on the possibility of reaching a two-state solution in the Middle
East with independent Israeli and Palestinian states.
On Monday, Romney
pledged to recommit his administration to seeking the two-state solution
and blamed Obama for what he called a negotiation process that has
"devolved into a series of heated disputes at the United Nations."
"In this old conflict,
as in every challenge we face in the Middle East, only a new president
will bring the chance to begin anew," Romney said.
"I know the president
hopes for a safer, freer, and a more prosperous Middle East allied with
the United States. I share this hope," he said."But hope is not a
strategy."
Romney also has faced
negative headlines over his quick response to the Benghazi consulate
attack. Soon after word broke of the violence, he fired off a statement
that was criticized as inaccurate and premature.
Seeking to remind voters
of Romney's past gaffes, the Obama campaign released a new ad in
Virginia, a battleground in the November 6 election, that characterized
the Republican challenger as "reckless" and "amateurish" on
international affairs.
The 30-second spot features news clips of what the commercial calls Romney's "gaffe-filled" trip to England, Israel and Poland.
"If this is how he handles the world now," the narrator in the new ad says, "just think what Mitt Romney might do as president."
Responding to the ad, a Romney campaign spokeswoman said Obama was the one who had "weakened" the U.S. standing in the world.
On Sunday, Romney
foreign policy director Alex Wong told reporters that the candidate's
foreign policy seeks the traditional U.S. role in global affairs dating
to the end of World War II.
"Mitt Romney's vision is
to restore influence and to support our friends and allies to move the
Middle East onto a path of greater liberty, greater stability, and
greater prosperity," Wong said. "It's a restoration of a strategy that
served us well for over 70 years."
Referring to the U.S.
perspective after World War II, Wong said that "we saw the need to have a
military that no one would challenge." He also cited the need to have
strategic allies around the world as part of what he called a full
spectrum of power "so we do not have to face again the horrors of war."
Romney and Obama will
debate foreign policy on October 22 in Florida following their second
debate in New York on October 16. On Thursday, Vice President Joe Biden
and Romney's running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, will hold their
only debate of the campaign.
No comments:
Post a Comment