The Eye for the Long Term

For John, BLUF:  A lot of us go for the quip that captures the moment, but ignores the long run.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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It’s time to admit it:  Mitt Romney was right about Russia

From CNN, by Editor-at-large Chris Cillizza, 22 February 2022, 3:42 PM EST.

Here is the lede plus three:

A decade ago, Mitt Romney went on CNN and made a statement that was widely perceived as a major mistake.

“Russia, this is, without question, our number one geopolitical foe,” Romney, who would be the Republican presidential nominee in the 2012 race against President Barack Obama, told Wolf Blitzer in March of that year.  “They — they fight every cause for the world’s worst actors.”

Obama and his team pounced on the comment, insisting that it showed Romney was hopelessly out of touch when it came to the threats facing the US.

In the third presidential debate between the two candidates in October 2012, Obama went directly after Romney for that remark.  “When you were asked, ‘What’s the biggest geopolitical threat facing America,’ you said ‘Russia.’  Not al Qaeda; you said Russia,” Obama said.  “And, the 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back, because the Cold War’s been over for 20 years.”

That is the way it is with National Security, with Foreign Affairs.  There are the immediate threats and there are the long term threats, the threats that existed decades ago and will still exist decades from now.  We should remember that 400 years ago China was the world's largest economy and 500 and some years ago China had the biggist "Truasure Fleet", in numbers and in size of ships.  China dismantled that fleet and it is taking a long time to recover.

It is nice to see CNN admit this error of the moment, back a decade ago.

Regards  —  Cliff