Dear Commons Community,

It was a verbal slug-fest on yesterday’s Face the Nation between Mitt Romney and Dick Durbin.  Former Governor Romney slammed President Obama as having lost the confidence of international allies claiming:

“The president’s naivete with regards to Russia and his faulty judgment about Russia’s intentions and objectives has led to a number of foreign policy challenges that we are facing.  Unfortunately, not having anticipated Russia’s intentions, the president wasn’t able to shape the kind of events that may have been able to prevent the kinds of circumstances that you’re seeing in the Ukraine.”

Senator Dick Durban in response said

“Governor Romney’s suffering from political amnesia. Does he remember the reaction of the rest of the world to our invasion of Iraq?  The fact is that many of our stalwart allies of the past thought it was a terrible decision. What President Obama has done is restore a working relationship.  Osama bin Laden is gone. The war in Iraq is over. Afghanistan is coming to a close. … I’m afraid Governor Romney’s forgotten those facts.”

I believe that the bitterness of his presidential defeat has clouded Romney’s vision and sense of history.  Iraq was one our country’s greatest follies in terms of the loss of life and expenditure of resources.  Our credibility with the international community was eviscerated when no weapons of mass destruction were ever found.

Tony