A Foreign Policy Debate Any Professor Would Fail

by Sarah Betancourt

Monday’s debate, moderated by CNN’s Bob Scheiffer, was the only one devoted exclusively to foreign policy.

Latin America, The Eurozone crisis, Africa, global warming, India and the drug war in Mexico — which has killed more people than the crisis in Syria — were forgotten. Trade and human rights, two issues reported by The Nation as being imperative when discussing China and the global economy, were non-existent. Syria’s civil war has left 30,000 dead. The conflict was mentioned, but no realistic solution was derived from the conversation, other than to avoid military intervention, or to save the tool as a last resort.

Obama and Romney continuously devolved back into their already mentioned arguments on domestic policy, including the deficit, education policy and tax reform. The debate opened with previously mentioned Libya discussion, and Middle Eastern politics, both past and present, without much strategy on how to move forward. If I had a dollar for every time cheap words like “strong,” “security,” “freedom,” and “principles” were mentioned, I’d be able to afford graduate school.

By: Sarah Betancourt

Sarah Betancourt is a Boston-based journalist who has written for In These Times, Open Media Boston, Spare Change News, Boston.com, the Boston Globe Environment Blog, and has had work appear in video on the National Geographic Water Currents Blog. She writes primarily about Boston politics, labor, Generation Y issues, and environmental policy.