Christopher Preble takes a close look at Romney's promise to spend "at least 4 percent of GDP on the military’s base budget":
Romney’s 4 percent gimmick would result in taxpayers spending more than twice as much on the Pentagon as in 2000 (111 percent higher, to be precise) and 45 percent more than in 1985, the height of the Reagan buildup. Over the next ten years, Romney’s annual spending (in constant dollars) for the Pentagon would average 64 percent higher than annual post–Cold War budgets (1990-2012), and 42 percent more than the average during the Reagan era (1981-1989). Mitt Romney may genuinely believe that today’s enemies are 42 percent more frightening than the big bad Soviets. He might believe that spending an average of $450 billion (in constant dollars) every year since 1990 has left the country dangerously vulnerable. If that is true, he should say so.
Larison comments on Mitt's foreign policy predicament:
Romney has now trapped himself by opposing himself to this imaginary Obama of “apology tours,” rejection of American exceptionalism, and appeasement, and he has tied himself to this thoroughly false portrayal of Obama for so long that it would be difficult for him to stop and to start grounding his attacks in facts.
His entire candidacy is built on various fantasies dictated by his unhinged party's base. What's truly staggering to me is that at no time during the discussion about Iran has the question of Iraq been raised by these trigger-happy war-mongers. And Mitt "I'd Double Gitmo!" Romney is supposed to be the guy who knows how to manage things.
The Dish 