Romney's 5 Fatal Flaws On Foreign Policy

KEY MESSAGES 

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HIS FIVE FATAL FLAWS

#1: Mistake America's enemies.

• When Romney said it's not worth it to go after bin Laden, Sen. McCain slammed him for his "naïvete" about fighting terrorism.
• When Romney called Russia our "No. 1 geopolitical foe," Gen. Colin Powell said, "C'mon, Mitt…think! It isn't the case." In fact, Russia just signed a historic treaty with the U.S. to reduce the threat of nuclear weapons and has signed onto historic international sanctions against Iran.
• Not understanding the threats facing America must be why Romney wants $2 trillion in Pentagon spending our military leaders don't want -- and why he can't name why that money is needed.
• The reality is that the world has changed, and so have the tools we need. That's why it is a counterterrorism approach that combines all the tools we have -- military, diplomatic, intelligence, law enforcement, financial, legal and civilian -- that brought hundreds of terrorists to justice.
• America's strength depends on our economy and our national security. Obama has proven he can make the right calls on both. Thanks to Obama, bin Laden is dead and GM is alive.

#2: Forget the past. Instead pander to ideologues committed to endless war.

• At home and abroad, it's as if Romney wants us to not remember the mistakes of the Bush years so he can repeat them. He surrounds himself with Bush advisors who got the facts wrong on Iraq and pressured us into war.
• On Iraq, Romney called the President's decision to responsibly end the war there and bring all our troops home "tragic." He wants to leave our troops there indefinitely and without any strategy.
• On Afghanistan, the President has a plan to responsibly end the war and we're already bringing our troops home. Romney, on the other hand, has had every position on Afghanistan and now suggests keeping us there indefinitely -- just like he would have in Iraq.
• On Iran, Romney offers a lot of bluster and saber rattling, but not any solution that isn’t already being done. The President has been clear that he will not let Iran get a nuclear weapon -- period. If Romney is just trying to start another war, he should come clean and say so.
• Before Obama, Iran was marching unchecked towards a nuclear weapon. Now thanks to Obama, Iran is isolated and crippled by the toughest sanctions in history, which even Romney admits are working.

#3: Go amateur. Start by mistaking politics for foreign policy.

• According to Romney, "a president is not a foreign policy expert." (Once in a while, Romney lets down his guard, slips up, and says what he really believes.)
• He has repeatedly shown that he is out of his depth, prompting Republicans to dismiss his amateurish attempt at leadership as "incompetent," "weak," and "reckless."
• Making a fortune by offshoring American jobs to China and living in a French chateau don't qualify you to be Commander-In-Chief.
• Given that Romney is out of his depth, maybe we shouldn't be surprised when he deliberately mistakes political strategy for foreign policy or politicizes the deaths of our diplomats.

#4: Get the facts wrong.

• Our Commander-In-Chief should have a command of the facts, seek out the truth when the facts are not known, and be able to make sound decisions even in uncertain situations.
• As nearly 70 million Americans witnessed last week, Romney got the basic facts wrong when he leveled a serious charge against President Obama about the Benghazi attack.
• Despite Romney's claim, Obama did in fact refer to the Benghazi attack as an act of "terror" the day after it happened. It's right there in the transcript.
• Not only does Romney keep spreading outright inaccuracies and falsehoods, he keeps lying to voters about the President so he can make the American people get the truth wrong, too.

#5: Insult other nations, including our allies.

• Our Commander-In-Chief must successfully manage America's international relationships so the rest of the world rightfully respects us. Romney threatens the opposite: more enemies, fewer friends.
• Romney insulted one of our nation's closest allies on their own soil during the London Olympics. But that's not the only time he offended Great Britain, or our other allies.
• When he insults other nations, he's not just exposing his own weaknesses -- he's compromising our national security interests. Just look at when he insulted Japan.
• And don't forget his insult of the Palestinians, which recklessly injected even more hostility into a highly sensitive situation in the Middle East.

Sum it up:

• With American lives and our national interests overseas at stake, we need a proven Commander-In-Chief -- not an amateur with Romney's fatal flaws on foreign policy.

BENGHAZI, LIBYA: A TEST OF LEADERSHIP

• The test of leadership isn't knowing everything right away and at all times. It's being able to make decisions and take action in uncertain situations based on the best information we've got at any given time.
• National security experts have also pointed out there isn't total and accurate clarity right away in a terrorist attack -- and that Romney's fixation on this exposes his lack of experience.
• The day after the Benghazi attack, President Obama referred to it as an act of "terror" while keeping in mind that the investigation was ongoing and vowed to bring the killers to justice.
• Romney's response? While the President was dealing with an international crisis and American lives being threatened, Romney put out a press release on 9/11 to score cheap political points.
• Romney and his Republican allies in Congress are even criticizing the President for not providing enough security for our diplomats, even though they -- including Congressman Ryan -- voted to cut diplomatic security funding by $300 million.
• Republicans in Congress are so eager to score political points that they've even exposed the names of Libyans collaborating with the United States -- directly putting their lives and our security mission at risk.

RESOURCES

For policy expertise, resources are available here, here, and here; here's a guide to the basics about our military; and here are the Department of State's First Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review and the Department of Defense's Quadrennial Defense Review.

We develop messaging by aggregating, analyzing and distilling polling, tested messaging, and expert recommendations, and monitoring the media to identify what is and isn't working. See here for some of the experts and organizations we draw on.