Romney Questions Quality of Obama’s Iranian Intel
Today, at the Foreign Policy Initiative’s annual conference in Washington, D.C., former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney opined that the President’s decision to halt plans for a missile shield in Eastern Europe may have been made on faulty intelligence. Describing the President’s move as a “kick in the sand at Poland and the Czech Republic” that was “visible, embarrassing and disruptive,” the former Presidential candidate questioned the quality of the information used to make the decision.
“Is our intelligence really that good?” he wondered aloud, “Is our eyesight into Iran that clear?”
Former Gov. Romney asserted that the decision to shelve plans to deploy a missile shield was made on the mistaken assumption that since Iran’s regime is not developing long-range missiles, defending against long-range missiles would be a waste of resources. Even if they weren’t developing this technology, Romney argued, “There are places in the world where they [Iran] might acquire long-range ballistic missiles.”
Despite America’s recent concession to the Russians, Romney said that he did not see American hegemony weakening in the near future: “I do not subscribe to the idea that America is in decline, or has to be in decline,” he said, to wide applause, “The chattering class has proclaimed [the decline of America], but the American people have said, ‘no bleeping way’.”
However, he continued, Obama’s policies were pushing American allies to rethink their stance towards the United States: “Our friends around the world are asking: is it better to be a friend of the U.S., or a foe?”