Romney the Wrong Man to Handle United States Foreign Policy
Joel Brinkley

Mitt Romney certainly has a lot of faith in America's influence in the Middle East.

During Monday night's debate, he seemed confident he could end Islamic militancy. It sounds so easy. The United States simply has to "put in place" a "robust strategy to help the world of Islam and other parts of the world reject this radical, violent extremism."

Why hadn't anyone thought of that before? I'll tell you why -- because it's hopelessly naive, like so many of Romney's foreign-affairs positions.

Take Pakistan, for example. The U.S. has been wrestling with Pakistani governments since 2001. But Pakistan is a hopelessly failed state, home to the Taliban, al-Qaeda and the Haqqani terror network -- as well as a rogue intelligence service and a wholly ineffectual government. What's more, Pakistanis by and large loathe and resent the United States.

No problem, Romney said. Once again, he argued, the U.S. is simply "going to have to remain helpful in encouraging Pakistan to move toward a more stable government and rebuild the relationship with us."

Why didn't we think of that before? The truth is, since 2001 the U.S. has given Pakistan more than $20 billion in aid, which Harvard's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs describes as "U.S. taxpayers funding Pakistani corruption."

But Romney offered a thought about that, too. "We should key our foreign aid" to "make sure we push back" and condition aid on results. Want to make that part of the world hate and resent us even more? That's the formula -- constantly sticking our noses into their business and threatening to cut off aid if the countries don't behave as we demand.

He was equally optimistic about Syria. The U.S. should arm the Syrian rebels, "but make sure" the arms "don't get into the wrong hands." Once again, that's something a dozen states have already tried to do. The problem is, there no clear central authority among the rebels.

The rebellion is a melange of Syrian army defectors, angry Syrian citizens and foreign terrorists. It's almost impossible for anyone donating weapons to know who is actually taking them. If a dozen foreign intelligence services have been unable to make this distinction over the last year, why does Romney think suddenly he could do better? That's hopelessly naive once again.

Truth be told, President Obama's strategy toward Syria is failing. For months now, the administration has been urging Arab states to limit the kinds of weapons they provide the Syrian rebels: just small arms -- rifles, hand grenades and the like. The idea is to keep heavy weapons out of al-Qaeda's hands. The principal arms suppliers, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, are complying.

But in fact, because of that the conflict is locked in stalemate. That's why it's now reaching toward its 20th month. That's why close to 3,000 Syrians are dead. And another result of American policy is that, while the stalemate drags on, more and more Islamic jihadists are flooding into the country.

A few months ago, Romney charged Obama with a "policy of paralysis" in Syria and vowed to give the rebels anti-aircraft launchers and other heavy weapons. But Tuesday night he simply called for the impossible: Sort out the rebels and give arms only to the "good" ones.

But of course that's hardly the first time Romney has changed his position. Monday night he chastised the president, demanding to know: "Are Israel and the Palestinians closer to reaching a peace agreement" since Obama took office. He seems to have forgotten what he told those wealthy donors on this issue earlier this year: "You recognize that this is going to remain an unsolved problem" so "we sort of live with it, and we kick the ball down the field and hope that ultimately, somehow, something will happen."

His debate homily about the American auto industry, while not a direct foreign-affairs issue, is all too typical.

"I'm a son of Detroit," he said, so he certainly could not have argued against a bailout of the industry four years ago, as Obama charged.

Well, then how does he explain this statement from a 2008 New York Times op-ed: "If General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye."

Romney tried to explain it away a few months ago.

"I pushed the idea of a managed bankruptcy," he said. "So I'll take a lot of credit for the fact that this industry has come back."

 

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Romney the Wrong Man to Handle United States Foreign Policy | Politics

 

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