The more Romney talks, the less credible he is. I really doubt he believes any of this rhetoric, but either he has been coerced by campaign advisors to say it or he thinks it will advance his cause in the crucial SC primary. I had assumed, naively as it turns out, that the whole neo-con argument for endless interventions in the middle east (and elsewhere) to promote "democracy" had been fatally tainted by the Bush experience. I would have thought that we learned that good intentions are not enough, that it's easier to get into these situations than to exit them successfully, that local populations do not always appreciate our "help" and that in any event, we can't afford it. It was shocking to me to hear republicans like Santorum and Pawlenty criticize obama for not making a bigger commitment to the Libyan adventure. Romney has been cautious until now on this issue. No doubt he has some polling that suggest obama is vulnerable on national security issues and this is the way his staff came up with to capitalize. Bad move. I am sure of two candidates who are not in favor of pissing away all this money on foreign adventures, Ron Paul and Michelle Bachmann. I like and admire Paul but he represents too drastic a change in my mind to be credible. That leaves Bachmann.
Shipbuilding is Government stimulus but in a better way. Missile defense is also a job creator and helps US manufacturing. The money will not be there to spend more, Roomny will need to cut from other areas. Best would be to pull 100,000 troops from Europe.
Like i said earlier the best we can hope for now is that Romney is having another one of his moments where he is just saying whatever he needs to in order to get elected. So we are basically stuck hoping that the guy who takes out Obama is just another liar. At best Romney is a liar, and at worst, he actually buys into this stupid shit, and will start parading around the world getting us into new wars if he gets elected. Like you i was floored when i saw santorum and pawlenty call for more military intervention in the debates but i dismissed it because i thought that they had nothing going for them so they were just trying to appeal to a small group of neo cons for votes, I am amazed that there is still a large group of Neo Cons who are not sick of war, i obviously misjudged them. Now that Romney is calling for more military spending it is downright scary, i hope he gets booed like crazy at the next debate if he brings up this idea. I honestly believe 2012 is the only chance conservatives have to salvage the country, as it will be the only chance where we have control of the senate, congress, and presidency,thus the only chance to slow down spending, and the only chance to repeal obamacare before the new entitlement gets its tenticles dug in deep, and there is no turning back. If we get Obama, or some stupid fucking war mongerer in charge in 2012 we are sunk.