Spencer Ackerman spotlights Santorum's foreign policy views:
Go down the line, as Foreign Policy did in this overview piece. In an October debate, Santorum fudged the difference between a trade war and a shooting war with the Chinese. (“I don’t want to go to a trade war, I want to beat China. I want to go to war with China and make America the most attractive place in the world to do business.”) The West Bank is “legitimately Israeli country,” he said in November, opposing Palestinian statehood.
It’s distinguished Santorum from his rivals. Few of Santorum’s Republican opponents are as hardline on so many foreign-policy issues. Romney even appears to be moving in a more dovish direction on Iran from his last presidential bid. And while the others play down security issues on the trail in favor of economic ones, Santorum’s final Iowa ad, seen above, boasted he had “more foreign policy credentials than any candidate” — and even repackaged a military term to dub him a “full-spectrum conservative.”
Santorum puts neoconservatism on steroids. And as an explicitly religious candidate, he would rightly be seen as a crusader in the Middle East, with all the blowback that entails for US interests and security.
The Dish 