News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. Oct. 26, 2012: Let’s see pick any place on Earth at random.
How about the Caribbean? What did Obama and Romney have to say about the Caribbean in their foreign policy debate?
Absolutely nothing!
The Caribbean, let alone all of Latin and South America, might as well have been on Mars. On the other hand if the Middle East was on Mars all they would have discussed is Mars!
Life would be so much simpler if there were only two countries in the world – the United States and Israel.
Wait a minute, that is the world Obama and Romney live in!
They proved it Monday night in their last debate. It was all about the Middle East and even when they did not mention Israel it was clear all their other concerns about the Muslim world and the Middle East were all ultimately about what it meant for Israel.
Yes you can do anything with enough power and money even make the world flat again. The Israelis and their domestic supporters deserve to be called brilliant. They have convinced most Americans, and most of all Obama and Romney, that Israel’s position in the world has such overreaching importance that every other issue that relates to foreign policy is subservient.
Or simply does not exist.
Israel is a tiny country of a few million but you’d never know it, least of all by watching last Monday’s debate. Here is the rub – this myopia serves no one’s best interest, not even Israel’s. All it does is breed resentment and weakens America’s standing in the world, which then weakens the value of America’s support of Israel.
Obama and Romney are to blame but so is the Israeli leadership and their most boisterous supporters in the United States – Jewish and non-Jewish. It amounts to a simplistic view of the world that would not have been intelligent in a far less complex world let alone now or for the future in our ever more complex interconnected world.
Romney and Obama had no problem turning those foreign policy questions into statements about domestic issues like jobs and the deficit. But if you were waiting for one of them to say let’s talk about Africa or let’s talk about Brazil or immigration or …
Forget about it!
The closest they came to breaking out of the Middle East was a passing reference to China and you wouldn’t be subject to criticism if you thought they were thinking about Israel while they said a very few words about China. Too bad the moderator didn’t ask them what they thought China’s policy toward Israel should be. They might have talked about China for the entire 90 minutes.
Forgive me for using Israel as the fall guy here. Because it’s not really about Israel; it is about myopia on the part of both Obama and Romney and their lack of LEADERSHIP on foreign policy.
A dynamic President or Wannabe President would have used this last debate to wow the American people with a clear and different view of American foreign policy in the 21st century and they would have displayed the intimate relationship between foreign policy and all other issues our nation faces.
And how about this “wild” idea?
Imagine either of them criticizing our government for spending far too little on intelligent foreign aid instead of throwing away hundreds of billions of dollars on one of the most corrupt regimes on Earth – Hamid Karzai’s Afghanistan.
What’s that you say Romney did? Absolutely not! Romney does not want to spend more on foreign aid – take the wax out of your ears and your eyes too. All he has been ranting and raving about is the ridiculous idea that he will withhold all foreign aid from countries that don’t do exactly what we tell them to do and fast…
Yessa Boss Man President of U.S.! Whatever you want Boss Man! We you servants massa … want us to lick your shoes and kiss your ass?
Welcome to Mitt Romney’s new American imperialism!
As for Barack Obama – did you know he killed bin Laden?. Really No kidding! Obama probably doesn’t talk about it enough; that must be why someone who has been buried in a mine shaft the last 20 years did not hear Barack Obama killed Osama bin Laden. No kidding!
Really it’s true! Look it up!!
Maybe we should all be thankful there is no 4th debate. So now we can give you the final score right here and right now …
Obama 2
Romney 1.
About The Writer: Arthur Piccolo is a professional writer and commentator and often writes about Latin America for New Americas.
