Romney Wants To increase The Military By 100,000 In Ground Forces
Mitt Romney Wrote That One Of The Agendas For A Free And Strong America Was To “Add At Least 100,000 Troops To Our Ground Forces…” In his book “No Apology” Mitt Romney wrote that one of the agendas for a free and strong America was to “Add at least 100,000 troops to our ground forces; provide top quality care and benefits to our veterans.” [“No Apology” 2011 Pg. 320]
Mitt Romney Wrote That One Of The Agendas For A Free And Strong America Was To “Return Our Navy And Air Force To The Levels Needed To Meet Their Respective Missions.” In his book “No Apology” Mitt Romney wrote that one of the agendas for a free and strong America was to “Return our navy and air force to the levels needed to meet their respective missions.” [“No Apology” 2011 Pg. 320]
In 2007, Romney Ran A Campaign Ad Promising To Increase The Military By 100,000. According to First Read, the TV ad ran in Iowa and Romney said, “It’s this century’s nightmare, Jihadism – violent, radical Islamic fundamentalism. Their goal is to unite the world under a single Jihadist caliphate. To do that, they must collapse freedom-loving nations like us. As President, I’ll strengthen our intelligence services. Increase our military by at least 100,000. And monitor the calls Al-Qaeda makes into America. And we can and will stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.” [First Read, 10/12/07]
In 2007 Romney Wrote That He Supports Increasing The Military By 100,000 Troops. Romney wrote, “First, we need to increase our investment in national defense. This means adding at least 100,000 troops and making a long-overdue investment in equipment, armament, weapons systems, and strategic defense.” [Foreign Affairs, July/August 2007]
Romney Wants To increase Military Spending
August 2011: Mitt Romney Said He Wanted Dedicate 4% Of The United States GDP To military Spending. The Sea Coast Online reported “On the issue of military spending, Romney said there is probably some wasteful spending in the military budget and his goal would be to cut some of the waste but to do so without weakening the military. He said he would rather strengthen the military and dedicate 4 percent of the country’s gross domestic product to that cause. “We should not look to the military as the source for cutting our budget, the waste of the military should be redirected to modernizing and updating our weapon systems and maintaining the capacity of our boots on the ground,” he said. “I believe a strong American military is the best deterrent of war and the best ally for peace the world has ever seen. I want our military to be so strong that no one would think to engage it.”“ [The Sea Coast Online, 8/25/11]
Romney Said Military Spending Should Be At Least 20 Percent Of The Federal Budget. ”Romney said military spending should be at least 20 percent of the federal budget, ‘an appropriate level of spending for a nation that sees the world with a number of very threatening forces in it.’ He cited China, which, he said, wants to ‘expand control into the South China Sea,’ has its “eyes on Taiwan” and has ‘already seized Tibet…”It should remain at least 20 percent of our federal budget,” he said.’” [Union Leader, 10/4/11]
Mitt Romney Wrote That One Of The Agendas For A Free And Strong America Was To “Maintain A Defense Budget Of At Least 4 Percent Of Our GDP, And At Least Twice The Actual And Comparable Military Spending Of Either Russia Or China.” In his book “No Apology” Mitt Romney wrote that one of the agendas for a free and strong America was to “Maintain a defense budget of at least 4 percent of our GDP, and at least twice the actual and comparable military spending of either Russia or China.” [“No Apology” 2011 Pg. 319-320]
Romney Supported Defense Budgets “That Are At Least Four Percent Of GDP.” According to Politico, Mitt Romney said, “I support defense budgets, excluding the cost of Iraq and Afghanistan, that are at least four percent of GDP, not three percent. It’s not that 4% is a magic number. It’s that I can see no reasonable scenario by which American can spend less and still provide our servicemen and women with the modern equipment and resources they need to defend us.” [Politico, 6/1/09]
Romney Falsely Accused Obama Of Cutting The Defense Budget
Romney: “I Will Reverse President Obama’s Massive Defense Cuts.” According to The Associated Press, “A look at some of his statements at The Citadel military college in South Carolina on Friday and how they compare with the facts: Romney ‘As president, on day one, I will focus on rebuilding America’s economy and I will reverse President Obama’s massive defense cuts. Time and again, we have seen that attempts to balance the budget by weakening our military only lead to a far higher price, not only in treasure, but in blood.’ Romney also has vowed to increase the size of the military by 100,000 troops, a move he says is needed to reduce the hardship of long and frequent deployments.” [The Associated Press, 10/7/11]
Associated Press: Mitt Romney Promised In His First Major Foreign Policy Speech To Reverse “Massive Defense Cuts” That Actually Have Not Happened. And He Pledged To Deploy Missiles And Ships That Already Are Largely In Place. According to The Associated Press, “Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney promised in his first major foreign policy speech to reverse ‘massive defense cuts’ that actually have not happened. And he pledged to deploy missiles and ships that already are largely in place.” [The Associated Press, 10/7/11]
Associated Press: There Have Been No “Massive Defense Cuts” Under Obama. According to The Associated Press, “There have been no ‘massive defense cuts’ under Obama, although he has slowed the projected rate of increase and in April asked the Pentagon to identify an additional $400 billion in reductions over the next 12 years. When he took office, the defense budget was $513 billion, not counting $153 billion to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. For the budget year that ended Sept. 30, the figure was $530 billion, with an additional $159 billion to pay for the wars. For the current fiscal year, Obama requested $553 billion for the defense budget, exclusive of war costs. But in a deal worked out by Congress and the White House as part of a deficit-reduction plan in August, he was forced to come down to $513 billion. As for troop numbers, Obama’s previous defense secretary, Robert Gates, put the Army and Marine Corps on a path to reducing troop numbers to adjust to the winding down of combat in Iraq and plans to reduce troops in Afghanistan. The Army is to drop from its current 569,000 to 547,000 by September 2013, and then to 520,000 by 2015. The Marines are to drop from 202,000 to a figure yet to be specified but in the neighborhood of 186,000 by 2015.” [The Associated Press, 10/7/11]
Romney Opposed Unilateral Action Targeting Al Qaeda In Pakistan And Said Capturing Bin Laden Was Not That Important
First Romney Said Killing Bin Laden Was Not Worth It, And That Unilateral Action Against Targets In Pakistan Was A Mistake
Romney Said It Was “Not Worth Moving Heaven And Earth” To Capture Osama Bin Laden Because America Would See An “Insignificant” Increase In Safety After His Capture. In an interview with Liz Sidoti of The Associated Press, Romney said, “the country would be safer by only ‘a small percentage’ and would see ‘a very insignificant increase in safety’ if al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden was caught because another terrorist would rise to power. ‘It’s not worth moving heaven and earth spending billions of dollars just trying to catch one person,’ Romney said. Instead, he said he supports a broader strategy to defeat the Islamic jihad movement.” [The Associated Press, 4/26/07]
Romney Attacked Obama For Promising Unilateral Action Against Al Qaeda Targets in Pakistan. Accoridng to Retuers, “Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney criticized Democrat Barack Obama on Friday for vowing to strike al Qaeda targets inside Pakistan if necessary as the Obama camp issued a strident defense of his plan. What had been an internecine foreign policy battle between rival Democrats Obama, an Illinois senator, and New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, spilled into the Republican arena in the heavily contested state of Iowa. ‘I do not concur in the words of Barack Obama in a plan to enter an ally of ours… I don’t think those kinds of comments help in this effort to draw more friends to our effort,’ Romney told reporters on the campaign trail. Obama on Wednesday said if elected president in November 2008 he would be willing to launch military strikes against al Qaeda targets inside Pakistan with or without the approval of the Pakistani government of President Pervez Musharraf. ‘If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won’t act, we will,’ Obama said.” [Reuters, 8/4/07]
Romney Said Using U.S. Troops In Pakistan Was Not “Civilized.” According to the Associated Press, “Romney spoke at a luncheon meeting of young Republicans in Des Moines and later with reporters who asked for his reaction to Obama’s comments. In a speech this week, the senator from Illinois issued a warning to Pakistani leaders that if they didn’t do a better job of rooting out terrorists who use that country as a sanctuary, the U.S. might intervene with force. Instead of issuing threats, the U.S. should work with nations to root out extremist forces which may exist, Romney said. ‘We want as a civilized world to participate with other nations in this civilized effort to help those nations reject the extreme within them,’ Romney said. ‘That doesn’t mean that our troops are going to go all over the world.’” [Associated Press, 8/3/07]
Now Romney Says Obama Made The Right Call
Romney Said President Obama Deserved Credit For Killing Bin Laden. The Union Leader reported that Romney called the operation that killed Osama Bin Laden “an enormous success” and said Obama “deserves credit for approving a relatively high-risk entry into the country with helicopters and special operations personnel, Navy SEALs.” [The Union Leader, 5/5/11]
Published: Jan 1, 2011