Romney makes debatable claims about military

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, campaigns at Eastern Ship Building in Pensacola, Fla., Jan. 28, 2012.

/ AP Photo/Charles Dharapak

PANAMA CITY, Fla. - Campaigning in Florida's conservative Panhandle, Mitt Romney on Saturday trained his fire on President Obama's military record, particularly the size of the U.S. armed forces compared with the past.

"Do you realize our Navy is now smaller than any time since 1917? Our Air Force is older and smaller than any time since it was founded in 1947," Romney said. "We have always, since the days of FDR, we've had the capacity to fight two wars at a time, not that we wanted to, but we wanted to have that kind of safety and capacity to defend ourselves. This president is changing that policy saying, 'Oh no, we'll only be able to fight one war at a time.'"

After Romney made similar statements about the Navy and Air Force during a debate in South Carolina, PolitFact labeled them "Pants on Fire," the fact-checking site's lowest ranking for accuracy.

PolitFact said each of the final four years under George W. Bush's term as president saw lower levels of active ships than any of the three years under President Obama. It also said that his statement about the size of the Air Force was credible, but military experts agree that counting the number of ships or aircraft is not a good measurement of defense strength because their capabilities have increased dramatically in recent decades.

Romney's comments about the two-wars strategy is in response to the Obama administration's recent proposal to trim the size of the military as an acknowledgment of both the current budget realities and what the administration considers a "more realistic" approach to defense policy.

Other Republicans have harshly criticized the move, but the notion that the U.S. could - or should - have the ability to fight two wars at once has long been largely a fiction.

Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld argued that the so-called "two-war doctrine" was outdated more than a decade ago, and his successor, Robert Gates, regularly said that there was no foreseeable possibility of large-scale ground conflicts in the near future.

Romney has seen his poll numbers climb in recent days as he and his surrogates have waged an aggressive attack on Newt Gingrich, his chief rival. He told the crowd that the former Speaker "was given the opportunity to lead our party," but that "he failed."

Greeting well-wishers during the rally, Romney sounded a note of confidence about the Sunshine State primary. "I just feel like things are going in our direction," he said. "I am hoping for a big turnout, and I think we are going to win here - I sure hope so."

[vissionquest]

The mission of our military and the mission of republicans who fund it are two separate items. The republican version is to take tax payer money and buy expensive things from corporations. Please think about why Haliburton is more interested in a republican president that a democrat.

[sweetcakesmaria]

Mitt lie lie pants on fire. Romney is in for a rude awakening. He is going to find out that the lies he tell his gullible followers is not going to work in a general election.

[noloyalisti]

What a surprise, Robmee the greasy, slimewad making debatable statements. This guy stinks like rotten fish.

[Kenny777_y]

and I thought G.W. THE IDIOT WAS A WAR MONGER how many wars does this dumb s.o.b. want to fight.

[sweetcakesmaria]

Mitt can start as many wars as he want for others to fight because his sons are to busy living high on daddy's millions to ever have to worry about defending this country.

[Aceduece]

Well little Mitt certainly didn't want to fight one as a soldier. He and his big strapping sons have all stayed as far aways from the military as they can. Typical tough talking chickens who are ok with other men defending this country so they can make money, money, money.

[AndyMaya]

What keeps me awake at night about Mitt Romney is that this man supports the NDAA, and praises the devaluation of the dollar to 2% so he can fund his "greatest military of the earth" and trade war with China. To put into context, the Wiemar hyperinflation which raised eggs from .50 marks to 11 BILLION marks was done by devaluing the Germany mark to 4 to 5%!! This fact alone disqualifies him. There goes your savings, your investments, insurance, and paycheck. He believes in this devaluation because of the saturation of Keynesian economic thought in all academic schooling we receive. The Keynesian model discredited itself by the events of the 70s and early 80s with the recession and then the crash of 2008. Romney does not believe that the national debt is a problem, while China is so scared of the fact that they are turning to gold as a refuge from the debasement of the dollar. We cannot let this man destroy our currency to fund his "Mr. Sunshine" goals of a grand legion army and tromping of american values far and wide. The banks have stated their full support behind their candidates Romney and Obama, and I see Ron Paul as the only alternative who will end the Fed's policy of sucking the value out of your savings.

[flatspots479]

Romney will not repeal obamacare. Romney is a progressive and stated so. The last man standing is Newt. Vote for Newt.

[kbbpll]

Osama chum Laden is dead, as are a host of his cohorts. What horrible mistakes the current President has made with the military!

[sweetcakesmaria]

Killing America's enemies is the only mistake he's made.

[fedup12]

Lying to make a point is worse than just saying nothing at all.

At least we would respect him more.

[Tiredashell]

If the military is so downsized, why do we remain the only country in the world pouring a quarter of our entire economy into the military? Why is our military larger than the combined militaries of the next half dozen or so developed countries? Why are we broke? Could it be that Mr. Romney is playing to the Military Industrial Complex? Is it possible a guy with his past in the private sector would see profit in that? Me thinks so.

[nearl451]

Because with percentages and percentages of percentages and percentages of rates, and shifting denomenators you can manipulate numbers to show basically whatever you want.

Romney is using mathematical tricks to basically lie (or deceive). Rather Satanic, that.

[pr_boxer]

My feelings exactly!

[P0STING_AWAY]

by joe1022joe January 29, 2012 9:34 AM EST
Another pro-Obama political attack on a Republican by the author, Sarah. B. Boxer. Why don't these news media outlets just put out help wanted ads that say, "Wanted: For our political writing staff - any liberal who can spell 'cat.'
The first and most important duty of a nation state is defense of the realm. Weaking that defense ability is unconscionable.
======================================================================
Gosh, Joey, How do you and your fellow Tea-Gagger-Bozos plan to pay
for this military ????
After all, you are telling us that "weaking" the military is bad, right ?

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/8601-503544_162-57367919.html?assetTypeId=41&blogId=&tag=contentBody;commentWrapper#ixzz1krWAUUib

[fedup12]

The GOP thinks military spending grows on trees similar to how the libs think welfare money does.

Neither side is really fiscally conservative.

[AgentDuke]

"After all, you are telling us that "weaking" the military is bad, right ?"

Not sure what 'weaking' means. You mean weakening? Or are you calling our brave soldiers weaklings? I can't tell. From your comment it sounds like you want to de-fund the military. Or would you be content with just disbanding and being some back-side to Canada instead? I prefer to have them around...our brave men and women have done pretty well thus far.