Both Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are making the case against Barack Obama's foreign policy, how it has been weak and how that weakness has translated into aggression and encouraged disorder and has heightened the prospect of conflict and instability.
Hard hitting interviews by Ryan, followed up with a clean concise op-ed by Romney, both speaking about Obama's policy of weakness.
Quotes from the Romney Op-Ed:
Disturbing developments are sweeping across the greater Middle East. In Syria, tens of thousands of innocent people have been slaughtered. In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood has come to power, and the country's peace treaty with Israel hangs in the balance. In Libya, our ambassador was murdered in a terrorist attack. U.S. embassies throughout the region have been stormed in violent protests. And in Iran, the ayatollahs continue to move full tilt toward nuclear-weapons capability, all the while promising to annihilate Israel.
These developments are not, as President Obama says, mere "bumps in the road." They are major issues that put our security at risk.
[...]
But in recent years, President Obama has allowed our leadership to atrophy. Our economy is stuck in a "recovery" that barely deserves the name. Our national debt has risen to record levels. Our military, tested by a decade of war, is facing devastating cuts thanks to the budgetary games played by the White House. Finally, our values have been misapplied—and misunderstood—by a president who thinks that weakness will win favor with our adversaries.
By failing to maintain the elements of our influence and by stepping away from our allies, President Obama has heightened the prospect of conflict and instability. He does not understand that an American policy that lacks resolve can provoke aggression and encourage disorder.
Quotes from Ryan's interview with Fox News Sunday’s Chris Wallace, via Fox News:
Ryan called President Obama’s foreign policy, “one of weakness.” He added, “We’re seeing the ugly fruits of the Obama foreign policy unravel around the world on our TV screens. Syria, you’ve got 20,000 dead people. Iran is closer to a nuclear weapon. The Middle East peace process is in shambles and we have our flags being burned all around the world. Russia is thwarting us at every stage in the process. This is a weak foreign policy with terrible results which makes us less safe.”
Wallace said there isn’t a big difference between Romney and Obama’s foreign policy plans, and when it comes to Iran, Romney’s red line seems to be about where Obama’s line has been drawn. Ryan said the difference is that the president’s policy lacks credibility. He stated, “The president has moved his rhetoric a bit to look more like ours, and that’s good, but the problem is it’s built upon a mountain of non-credible actions.”
He said, “When you hesitate, when you don’t speak with clarity, when you don’t project your confidence in American values, it projects weakness and equivocation. When you gut the military, as the president’s proposing to do, that shows that we’re weakening our resolve or weakening our military.”
H/T Hot Air on the Ryan video above (The whole Ryan interview can be seen HERE)
In Obama's 2009 Inaugural Address he said:
To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society's ills on the West, know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy.To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history, but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.
They did unclench their fists and raised their middle finger to Obama, yet he continues to appease them even when they attack our embassies, consulates and murder our diplomats, then casts the blame elsewhere before evidence became public proving the Obama narrative false, then he suddenly admits the truth.
America suffered another terrorist attack on the anniversary of 9/11, in Libya, and because of Obama's policy of weakness those that attacked us are not worried about retaliation.
[Update] The most egregious offense right behind the murder of our diplomats, was that the al-Qaeda flag was raised and flown on top of American sovereign soil at our embassy in Cairo, Egypt.
Our allies do not trust us to stand with them and our enemies do not fear us... That is Obama's foreign policy.
[Update] Followup with "Video - American Crossroads' Truly Devastating Ad Against Obama - 'World'