The Neocons' Long Game

[kpete]

Mitt Romney Foreign Policy Team: 17 of 24 Advisors Are Bush Neocons
http://www.policymic.com/articles/11219/mitt-romney-foreign-policy-team-17-of-24-advisors-are-bush-neocons



The Neocons' Long Game

MATTHEW DUSS OCTOBER 23, 2012
Romney may have backed away from his party's most powerful foreign policy contingent in last night's debate, but don't expect the fuzzy moderate feelings to last if he ends up in the White House.

Perhaps the most brutal moment of the night was President Obama's takedown of Romney's claim that the president had gone on an "apology tour" after taking office, a treasured conservative myth despite its pantaloons being rendered aflame by virtually every fact-checking organization in existence. True to form, the Romney campaign blasted out a new "Apology Tour" ad this morning, which notably doesn't include any footage of President Obama apologizing.

It tells us a lot about Romney’s lack of a clear foreign policy agenda that this is was the moment his campaign thought most worthy of highlighting from last night—a cheap attack based not on any substantive policy difference, but a stylistic difference founded on a complete falsehood, the idea that President Obama hasn't proclaimed or exerted American power boldly enough.

Which is why, despite Romney's momentary embrace of President Obama's policies, we should still be concerned with the role that neoconservatives would play in a Romney administration. It's important to keep in mind that, as a candidate, Governor George W. Bush made a lot of moderate, reasonable-sounding noises about foreign policy too. But when faced with a crisis on 9/11, the inexperienced president with unformed foreign policy ideas fell back on the comforting but naive idea that America's greatness could be proclaimed, and its deterrence re-established, through the massive exercise of military force. The next president will likely face a similar crisis, even if not likely on the scale of 9/11. It very much matters who has his ear.


......

http://prospect.org/article/neocons-long-game

[Pbs1914]

1. If one thing I would have liked

is for the Pres to mention that 17 of Romney's 22 foreign advisors are advisors from Bush. Then asking a question, do we want a return to Rumsfeld et al? I think that needs to get out there because moderates may not be as concerned about the foreign policy part if they feel that Romney has the same policies and outlooks as Obama. If I did not know 17 of 22 former Bush advisors were now Romney advisors, I would feel a bit less concerned/alarmed regarding Romney's foreign policy myself.

[pinboy3niner]

2. Mitt Romney's Neocon War Cabinet (and the "more enemies, fewer friends" doctrine)

Excerpt from Ari Berman's article in The Nation in May:

.... Of Romney's forty identified foreign policy advisers, more than 70 percent worked for Bush. Many hail from the neoconservative wing of the party, were enthusiastic backers of the Iraq War and are proponents of a US or Israeli attack on Iran. Christopher Preble, a foreign policy expert at the Cato Institute, says, "Romney's likely to be in the mold of George W. Bush when it comes to foreign policy if he were elected." On some key issues, like Iran, Romney and his team are to the right of Bush. Romney's embrace of the neoconservative cause -- even if done cynically to woo the right -- could turn into a policy nightmare if he becomes president.

If we take the candidate at his word, a Romney presidency would move toward war against Iran; closely align Washington with the Israeli right; leave troops in Afghanistan at least until 2014 and refuse to negotiate with the Taliban; reset the Obama administration's "reset" with Russia; and pursue a Reagan-like military buildup at home. The Washington Monthly dubbed Romney's foreign policy vision the "more enemies, fewer friends" doctrine, which is chillingly reminiscent of the world Obama inherited from Bush.

http://www.thenation.com/article/167683/mitt-romneys-neocon-war-cabinet