Romney’s Threat-Filled Worldview

Click here for all of David Frum’s blogposts on Mitt Romney’s “No Apology”.

Chapters 3 & 4 concern national defense, and they are written at a much higher level of sophistication than Chapter 2. Here for example is Romney on the reasons to be concerned about China’s military buildup, despite America’s seeming strategic superiority:

They have not yet built their military to challenge us head-to-head around the globe. Instead, they have shaped it to deter us, to match us, or even to defeat us in the specific theaters and missions that are most important to them. (p. 55)

Some striking themes in these chapters:

1) Despite Romney’s concern for China’s rising power, India and other balancing powers in Asia are almost entirely absent from his thought. India is not mentioned even once in the two defense chapters. This is very puzzling – very disturbing – and unfortunately likely to be very offensive to anyone in the Indian government who buys this book to learn more about the thinking of a possible future president of the United States.

2) Romney seems equally concerned with military threats from Russia as from China, despite Russia’s economic freefall. His alarmism seems based in very large part on his personal distaste for the thuggish ruler of Vladimir Putin. No objections in this corner. But you are left to wonder whether Romney is not being over-influenced by his emotions in these calculations.

3) Romney talks a great deal about Iran, but always in a way that seems off-kilter. Thus Romney writes on p. 70. “The value of controlling Iran, for example, is enormous for the Khomeinist jihadists.” This phrasing makes it sound as if Khomeinism was a global movement that just happened to perch in Iran. (By the way, Romney cites a Michael Landon on p. 64. He means Michael Ledeen.)

4) Romney asks “Why haven’ t we suffered a major terrorist attack in the United States since September 11, 2001?” Romney proposes an array of answers to this question. He forgoes the opportunity to credit or defend enhanced interrogation techniques, a topic that goes undiscussed altogether.

5) The management consultant in Romney steps forward to propose sweeping reorganization of the State Department and the conduct of foreign policy generally. You can almost see the PowerPoint presentation in one’s head, as first we review the horrific spaghetti tangle of the pre-existing org chart with the logic and clarity of the new…

6) Romney has more to say in favor of “soft power” of any candidate in a long time. He even has compliments to offer to foreign aid – and to compliment America’s fighting military allies. OK, only one of them, Great Britain, leaving all the others in the cold … but still one is better than none.