Mitch Perry
Since joining the U.S. Senate in January 2011, Marco Rubio has paid special attention to foreign affairs.
He’s often been a member of the John McCain-Lindsey Graham bloc when it comes to advocating for military action. He’s been on the Senate Foreign Affairs and Intelligence committees, and has said this spring that the knowledge he’s acquired in world affairs makes him more qualified than any governor running for office.
With that backdrop, there were expectations leading into his speech Wednesday at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City. In his address he offered his own “Rubio Doctrine” that consists of three pillars: American strength; the protection of the American economy in a globalized world; and “moral clarity” regarding America’s core values.
He began by quoting one of President John F. Kennedy‘s last public statements 51 years ago, a variation on Ronald Reagan‘s “peace through strength” motto.
“I am confident, as I look to the future, that our chances for security, our chances for peace, are better than they have been in the past,” he quoted from Kennedy’s address in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. “And the reason is because we are stronger. And with that strength is a determination to not only maintain the peace, but also the vital interests of the United States.”
Rubio then went on to say that Kennedy “understood what our current president does not: that American Strength is a means of preventing war, not promoting it. And that weakness, on the other hand, is the friend of danger and the enemy of peace.”
As is de rigueur for GOP presidential candidates, there was plenty more criticism of President Barack Obama‘s foreign policy initiatives.
“He demonstrated a disregard for our moral purpose that at times flirted with disdain,” Rubio said. “He criticized America for having ‘arrogance’ and the audacity to ‘dictate our terms’ to other nations. From his reset with Russia, to his open hand to Iran, to his unreciprocated opening to Cuba, he has embraced regimes that systematically oppose every principle our nation has long championed. This deterioration of our physical and ideological strength has led to a world far more dangerous than when President Obama entered office.”
The world is a dangerous place, but whether it was President Obama’s alleged weakness that led to Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad going to war on his own people or Vladimir Putin annexing Crimea and invading Eastern Ukraine may never be known.
Republicans have often compared Obama to Jimmy Carter‘s foreign policy during the 1970’s, and Rubio was channeling his inner Reagan throughout, saying, “America plays a part on the world stage for which there is no understudy. When we fail to lead with strength and principle, no other country, friend or foe, is willing or able to take our place. And the result is chaos.”
Rubio also managed to get in a dig at Hillary Clinton as he said, “We simply cannot afford to elect as our next president one of the leading agents of this administration’s foreign policy – a leader from yesterday whose tenure as secretary of state was ineffective at best and dangerously negligent at worst. The stakes of tomorrow are too high to look to the failed leadership of yesterday.”
In terms of specifics, Rubio is calling for a reversal of sequestration that has led to defense budget cuts. He also advocates passage of Section 215 of the Patriot Act, and giving Obama the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) so the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnerships can pass through Congress.
Hours before the speech, the Democratic PAC American Bridge 21st Century issued a statement slamming Rubio on his foreign policy comments, blasting what they said were his bellicose comments to appease the Tea Party. It listed five different statements he’s made that were cited as false by either PolitiFact or the The Washington Post.
An American Bridge news release said, “As Marco Rubio prepares for what his campaign is billing as a ‘major’ foreign policy speech at the Council of Foreign Relations on Wednesday, his lackluster foreign policy résumé is a good reminder that Rubio’s shift to ultra-hawk has been sloppy at best. Like his vertigo-inducing swing right on immigration, Rubio has tacked to the extreme right to appease the Tea Party base that still controls the Republican Party.”
The Democratic National Committee also chimed in, saying that instead of being the candidate from the 21st Century, “Marco Rubio embraces the failed GOP ideas from the past,” referring to his positions on Cuba, the war on Iraq, and wanting to maintain a permanent U.S. troop presence in the Middle East.
