Rand Paul: Romney is Wrong on Foreign Policy
This week, I will campaign for Gov. Mitt Romney. I believe this election will and should be about moving America back from the edge of the abyss on which we stand, where our debt and spending threaten to overwhelm and drown us. Romney’s belief in free markets, limited government and trade make him the clear choice to lead our country come January.
We’ve been 10 years in Afghanistan and we can’t identify friend from foe. Do you think we can, with certainty, identify friend and foe in Syria?
I do not, however, support a call for intervention in Syria. And, if such intervention were being contemplated, it is absolutely necessary that Congress give any such authority to the president. No president, Republican or Democrat, has the unilateral power to take our nation to war without the authority of the legislature.
At times, I have been encouraged by Romney’s foreign policy. I agree with his call to end the war in Afghanistan sooner rather than later and with his skepticism of, and call for reform in, foreign aid, but I am a bit dismayed by his foreign policy speech Monday, titled “Mantle of Leadership.”
Romney chose to criticize President Obama for seeking to cut a bloated Defense Department and for not being bellicose enough in the Middle East, two assertions with which I cannot agree.
Defense and war spending has grown 137% since 2001. That kind of growth is not sustainable.
[ Don’t miss related statements from Buchanan and Laura Ingraham, here.]
Adm. Michael Mullen stated earlier this year that the biggest threat to our national security is our debt.
If debt is our gravest threat, adding to the debt by expanding military spending further threatens our national security…
We’ve been 10 years in Afghanistan and we can’t identify friend from foe. Do you think we can, with certainty, identify friend and foe in Syria?
Before taking our country closer to war, shouldn’t we at least ask the viewpoint of the significant Christian population in Syria? News reports indicate they are wary of the rebels and are either sitting the fight out or siding with al-Assad. Al-Assad is by no means a saint but Christians flocked to Syria from a war-torn Iraq because they feared al-Assad less than the Islamic government we brought into being.
Before getting deeply involved, should someone ask: Are these rebels going to be implementing the death penalty for criticism of Islam?
Read on: http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/10/opinion/rand-paul-romney-foreign-policy/
*The whole article is well worth the read.