September 23, 2012
M.
Serajul Islam
Foreign policy is the Republican Party’s weak link in a
Presidential election that is showing signs of shifting positively towards the
Democrats following the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Charlotte,
North Carolina earlier this month. In fact, Mitt Romney showed his weak hand at
the Republican Convention a week before the DNC when he said that the Russians
are USA’s number one enemy leading many to conclude that he showed the same shallow
understanding of foreign affairs as Sarah Palin
she had said that she could see Russia from Alaska during the last
presidential election!
The Republicans thus deliberately opted against introducing
foreign affairs as an agenda in the elections till recently. They favoured
fighting the Democrats on the economy where they think they can tie them down
on a sticky wicket. They are conscious that foreign policy is the strong point
of the Obama re-election campaign. In Vice President Joe Biden, the Democrats
have a foreign affairs expert recognized nationally and internationally. Joe Biden is a former Chairman of the Senate
Foreign Affairs Committee. Of course, in the last four years, the President and
Joe Biden have enriched their foreign affairs credentials substantially.
In the current term, the Obama administration has ended the US
involvement in Iraq and has given a road map in Afghanistan under which US
combat troops would return home by 2014. The crowning glory of the Obama
administration in foreign and security affairs has been the killings of Osama
Ben Laden and the top leadership of Al Qaeda. These successes are significant and the
Republicans know that if they get involved with foreign affairs, it would
damage the Romney-Ryan ticket.
The Republicans however could not check the temptations of being
drawn to foreign affairs when Israel decided to roll in the dice for Mitt
Romney. It is common knowledge in Washington that President Obama and Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu never became friends in their respective terms.
Their “famously testy relationship” was revealed during the Group of 20 Summit
in Cannes in November last year. Associated Press leaked a private conversation
between French President Nicolas Sarkozi and President Barak Obama before the
start a press conference after the Summit in which the former said while
talking of Benjamin Netanyahu: “I can’t stand him. He is a liar”. The US President agreed and remarked: “You
may be sick of him but me; I have to deal with him every day.” Although respective
aides declined to comment on the leak,
it revealed what is now an open secret, that President Obama and Prime Minister
Netanyahu have not established a good personal equation.
That personal equation was recently tested when Benjamin Netanyahu
called President Obama and had an hour long telephone talk to convince the
latter that Iran has crossed the “red line”.
Recently gathered intelligence has convinced Tel Aviv that Iran is 90%
of the way to developing the nuclear bomb and has long since crossed the “red
line’ and therefore must be attacked to take out its nuclear capabilities. According
to NYT, the US President declined to embrace Israeli Prime Minister’s proposal on
the “red line”.
Israel is concerned about a new Obama term particularly when in
Tel Aviv; the conclusion is that the race for the White House is slipping out
of the hands of the Republicans. As a result, the aides of Benjamin Netanyahu have
set aside an earlier unwritten agreement with aides of President Obama that
Israel would not interfere in the US presidential election. They leaked to the
media that the US President has refused to meet the Israeli Prime Minister on
the sidelines of the UNGA session in New York but kept his schedule to appear on
the David Letterman Show.
Mitt Romney instantly took the cue. He slammed the President for
turning down the request for the meeting from an important and trusted ally. He
flagged his close friendship with the Israeli Prime Minister highlighting their
period together as consultant in the Boston Consulting Group in 1976 and the
close friendship they developed subsequently. In fact during the Republican
primaries last December, Mitt Romney had said that before making any
disparaging statement on Palestine, he would get on phone with his friend Bibi
(Netanyahu’s nick name) and ask him: ‘Would it help if I say this? What would
you like me to do?’ He was reacting to a disparaging remark by Newt Gingrich
on Palestine to flag his closeness with the Israeli Prime Minister and support
for Israel.
The White House denied the Tel Aviv leak on the appointment in New
York, stating that it received no request from the office of the Israeli Prime
Minister. It was later revealed that the US President would have to remain in
New York beyond his schedule for Benjamin Netanyahu to reach New York to meet
him! In retrospect, Mitt Romney played the issue poorly. He gave voters the
impression of his willingness to make his administration should he get elected
subservient to Tel Aviv. It is important for any candidate in the Presidential
race in the United States to be friendly to Israel because of the power of the
Israeli lobby. However, the majority of the voters hate to be see their country
dictated by Israel. Candidate Romney has stepped into this miscalculation no
doubt because of his inexperience and that of his team in handling foreign
policy issues.
Mitt Romney team also made another miscalculation with his
reaction to the killings in Benghazi in which the US Ambassador died in the
hands of terrorists. He blamed the Obama administration’s weak foreign policy for
giving the terrorists the upper hand that resulted in the death of Ambassador Chris
Stevens and his colleagues in Benghazi. In blaming the President, Mitt Romney
again exposed his naivety on foreign policy because most
Americans see such unfortunate incidents as part of the risk the United States must undertake to remain as
the number one power on the world political stage. The dignity and grace with
which the President and Secretary of State handled the aftermath of the
Benghazi incident enhanced their rating with the voters and went to show that
the Romney-Ryan ticket is way short of what it needs to lead the US
administration in foreign affairs.
The Romney campaign team hoped that attacking the President on
Israel, the “red line” concerning Iran and the murders of the US Ambassador,
all foreign policy issues, would help their cause. Instead the attacks
boomeranged. In fact, since the lack
luster Convention of the Republican Party in Tampa followed by the very
successful Convention of the Democrats in Charlotte, the candidature of
President Obama has widened the gap substantially in all the polls taken since
the Convention of the two parties till the time of writing this piece as the
election enters its final phase leading to Election Day on November 6.
To complete the circle of a very bad patch that the Romney-Ryan
ticket is passing through since the
Conventions, a video taken secretly of a
Romney fund raiser dinner where per
plate went for US$ 50,000 showed Mitt Romney
stating that 47% of Americans will never vote for him because they are
“victims” of dependency on the government. In an election where the Democrats
are portraying him as a candidate of the 2% rich Americans with scant respect
for the middle class and the poor, the video has made significant negative
impact where the undecided voters are beginning to wake up to the fact that
this election is one of choice; whether to back a candidate who speaks and
stands for the middle class and the poor or to send to the White House a
representative of the rich.
Candidate Mitt Romney would have to really make a major impact and
President Obama a poor impression in the Presidential debates starting on
October 3rd to stop President Obama from getting another term in the
White House. The task ahead for the challenger is getting tougher with each
passing day.
The writer
is a retired Secretary and a former Ambassador to Japan and Egypt
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