The commander-in-chief elects not to commit an act of war in order to destroy sensitive American military technology before it can fall into Iranian hands. Prudent presidential decision-making, or total wuss move?
In an interview with FOX News on Wednesday morning, Mitt Romney seemed to suggest that if he were the one calling the shots, it would have been bombs away.
When asked what he would have done upon learning a U.S. surveillance drone had crashed in Iran, Romney said “absolutely take it out.”
He (Obama) was extraordinarily weak and timid in a time of … a critical moment. This will have severe implications for us, long term, and it was a terrible mistake on his part. I find it incomprehensible that he didn’t destroy it, or go get it. I think destroying it would have been a good deal easier. Destroy it immediately, or go get it. But the idea of letting it fall into the hands of people who will use it against us, use the intelligence capacity against us, is an extremely enormous mistake on the part of this president.
Though it remains unclear whether the RQ-170 “Sentinel” drone was equipped with a self-destruct mechanism, former Vice President Dick Cheney has suggested in recent days that Obama should have just ordered an airstrike to destroy it, damn the consequences. Romney seems to be suggesting the same.
Paul Werdel
Paul Werdel is an Associate Editor at TPM. Before joining TPM he was a News Editor with Al Jazeera English, and before that a Producer with BBC News. He can be reached at werdel(at)talkingpointsmemo.com.
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