What the Candidates Got Wrong in the Latest GOP Debate
Jan 27, 2012
On Monday night, the Republican candidates for President met in Tampa, Florida to spar over peddling influence, debate tax returns, and generally confuse the American public about the supposed decline of the United States Navy and the bankruptcy of the Obama administration’s policy toward Iran.
During the debate, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney said:
"Our Navy is now smaller than any time since 1917."
Though it is true that the United States Navy has seen fluctuations in the total number of ships over the past 95 years, the United States Navy is still by far the most advanced and most powerful navy in the world. It also turns out the Navy was smaller than today at the end of Fiscal Years 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008. In 2009, when the Navy had 285 active surface ships (the same as today), then-Secretary of Defense Robert Gates wrote in Foreign Affairs (Jan/Feb 2009, Vol. 88 Issue 1, p28-40) that:
“As much as the U.S. Navy has shrunk since the end of the Cold War, for example, in terms of tonnage, its battle fleet is still larger than the next 13 navies combined — and 11 of those 13 navies are U.S. allies or partners.”
Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum among GOP candidates taking anti-Iranian hardline: What We're Reading
Nov 09, 2011
IRAN
Iran Escalates Anti-U.S. Rhetoric Over Nuclear Report
Robert F. Worth, The New York Times -- November 9, 2011
Professing outrage over the release of a United Nations report on Iranian nuclear ambitions, Iran’s leaders escalated their anti-American vitriol on Wednesday, calling the report a fabrication, denouncing its chief author as a Washington stooge and vowing that their country would not be bullied into abandoning its nuclear program.
Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum among GOP candidates taking anti-Iranian hardline
Shira Schoenberg, Boston Globe -- November 9, 2011
The Republican presidential candidates are urging the use of force, sanctions, and even friendship to deter Iran, after the International Atomic Energy Agency released a report saying it had credible information the nation was developing nuclear weapons.
NORTH KOREA
US Korean Envoy ‘Optimistic” on New Nuclear Talks
Voice of America -- November 9, 2011
A former U.S. envoy in charge of North Korean policy says multi-national talks aimed at ending Pyongyang's rogue nuclear weapons program could resume in the near future.
New commander of US 7th fleet says he worries most about North Korea, not so much about China
Washington Post -- November 9, 2011
A senior U.S. Navy commander said Wednesday he worries much more about North Korea than about other Asian countries, including rising military power China. Vice Adm. Scott Swift, who took over as commander of the 7th Fleet in September, said that while the U.S. military has an “open and robust” relationship with China, he spends a lot of time thinking about North Korea because of its “unpredictability.”