What questions should be asked in the foreign policy debate?

[yurbud]

I've got a couple, that I don't have particular answers for and that aren't meant as "gotchas" for either candidate (but maybe for both).

• In the last debate, President Obama mentioned in passing a "bipartisan consensus" on foreign policy. If such a consensus exists, how can voters have a say in foreign policy? Or do they?
  
  
• We say that we support democracy and human rights, but in the last decade or so alone, we have supported the violent overthrow and attempted overthrow of democratically elected governments in Venezuela, Haiti, and Honduras to name a few. What priorities are trumping democracy in situations like that?
  
  
• What is the United States policy toward access to and hegemony over oil and natural gas and its transport in the Middle East and Caspian Sea Basin?
  
  
• If we are fighting a war on terror, when there is a conflict between the people in various oil rich countries and our oil companies, shouldn't we side with the people to reduce the animosity toward the United States?
  
  
• The United States fought two wars after 9/11, one in Afghanistan that was peripherally involved in the attacks and another in Iraq that wasn't involved in the attacks at all. Yet Saudi Arabia remained untouched despite the Joint Congressional Inquiry into 9/11 finding substantial evidence of Saudi government involvement, such as the declassified FBI report on a Saudi agent who picked up two of the hijackers at LAX, set them up in an apartment, and funneled money to them from the Saudi ambassador's wife until the time of the attacks. Why did that involvement in the greatest loss of civilian life on American soil not merit a military or even diplomatic response? Or were those other wars about something else altogether?
  
  
• The international banking order seems to be causing more instability and suffering and the concentration of wealth at the top. Should supporting that order continue to be a top priority of the United States, or should it be seen as a national security threat?
  

There's probably a lot more. I'd like to hear yours.

[A-Schwarzenegger]

1. Governor Romney, what is your foreign policy experience?

[coalition_unwilling]

2. Are torture and extra-judicial executions as American as cherry pie? -n/t

[yurbud]

9. It is not torture or extra-judicial killing when we do it.

[liberal N proud]

3. Governor; How is it that earlier this year you traveled to 3 countries and pissed off 3 countries?

[yurbud]

6. that was Romney's equivalent of Sarah Palin not being able to name a newspaper

[Shankapotomus]

4. Governor Romney, is there any foreign

country whose political system you admire or think America can learn from?

That is intended as a gotcha question because if he says no, as I think a republican would, the republican hostility and arrogance toward other nations will be in full view to the voters watching the debate.

[yurbud]

5. excellent choice! The smarter ones claim to admire places like Singapore that

have less regulation and all that, but they don't make those kinds of comments around the mouth breathers.

[Shankapotomus]

7. The question is also a trap

If he answers in the negative, he risks insulting our foreign allies even before he potentially becomes president.
And if he answers in the affirmative he risks alienating his base.

[yurbud]

8. an added layer of tar for the pit.