Romney’s Delusion: America Cannot Survive Containing a Nuclear Iran
[Via Eunomia]
Fortunately, Romney is not reckless and has mature foreign policy views. He has told us so himself:
I can assure you if I’m president, the Iranians will have no question but that I will be willing to take military action if necessary to prevent them from becoming a nuclear threat to the world. I don’t believe at this stage, therefore, if I’m president that we need to have a war powers approval or special authorization for military force [bold mine-DL]. The President has that capacity now. I understand that some in the Senate for instance have written letters to the President indicating you should know that a containment strategy is unacceptable.
We cannot survive a course of action would include a nuclear Iran [bold mine-DL] we must be willing to take any and all actions. All those actions must be on the table.
These are not statements that Romney’s critics are putting into his mouth. No one is speculating about what Romney’s position on Iran might be, and no one is imputing views to him that he doesn’t claim to hold. He is telling the public plainly that he believes the United States cannot survive a containment policy directed against Iran. It is fair to conclude from this that Romney is delusional (or is pretending to be delusional) and cannot be entrusted with the responsibilities of the Presidency.
The United States survived decades of containing Soviet power. America outlasted what may have been the greatest security threat in our history partly because of a policy of containment. Iran is far weaker than any threat the USSR ever posed. If the U.S. could not survive a nuclear-armed Iran, a President Romney would be powerless to change that. On the other hand, back in the real world, if the U.S. has little to fear from a nuclear-armed Iran and is more than capable of deterring any threat from Iran, there is no reason to listen to anything Romney has to say on this subject.
Romney obviously does not believe war is a last resort, and he clearly doesn’t believe that the Congress has anything to say about attacking Iran. According to Romney, it is something that the President could do tomorrow if he believed it necessary. The Constitution is completely irrelevant to Romney, and so is the consent of the American people expressed through its representatives. No one should have any illusions about how Romney would conduct foreign policy if he is elected.
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Daniel Larison writes on foreign policy for the American Conservative. His description of Romney’s words made my mouth drop.
No need to get approval for war from Congress against a country that simply poses no real existential threat to us. Not like Russia or China do
I’ve written about my worries of the Imperial Presidency. Having a dysfunctional Congress certainly is hastening this.
Now we have a Presidential candidate who simply states that Congress is irrelevant in the area of military action.
Unless Congress starts to work again, we may find ourselves with a King in just a short time.
June 19, 2012 at 5:55 am
[...] And this is from a conservative – Romney’s Delusion (amanwithaphd.wordpress.com) [...]
June 20, 2012 at 7:03 am
We already have a King! He rules by executive order. “The People” no longer have a say in anything and Congress is certainly not to blame. They can’t even get docs from the DOJ!
June 20, 2012 at 8:23 am
Blame Obama all you want but it did not start with him. You seem to forget that much of the same stuff happened under Bush, who used signing statements to detail how he interpreted the law, ignored the need for warrants on wiretaps, created an extrajudicial prison and instituted torture of our war prisoners. All by Executive actions. He also refused many Congressional subpoenas for documents dealing with matters under Congressional purview.
This is not a problem of just one party or one man. It is a problem of our current system. It is a continuing problem since at least Nixon. And it is Congress’ fault. They have shirked their duty to the Constitution and to the American People by doing less and less while allowing the Executive Branch to accrue power. They want the President to be the one ‘responsible.’ This why eveyone talks like the Budget is all from the President, even though Bush and Obama had little to do with the final budget other than sign it.
Power abhors a vacuum. If Congress does not exercise it, then the Executive will take it. That is what brought down the Roman Republic.