Tagged: Foreign Policy

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is on a weeklong trip in which he's scheduled to meet with three prime ministers, give two speeches and attend the opening ceremonies of the London Olympics. On a more practical level, he'll also raise some campaign cash.

This trip is designed to highlight how Romney would fix the failings he sees in President Obama's foreign policy.

Romney opened his attack Tuesday while still in the U.S. In an address to the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Reno, Nev., he lit into the Obama administration's relationship with Israel.

Transcript

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Rachel Martin.

Just when it seemed that the fractious between the U.S. and its ally Pakistan couldn't get worse, they have. Calls on Capitol Hill to scale back aid to Pakistan are getting louder. And in the last couple of days, Pakistani officials have derided comments by U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta who, on a recent trip to Kabul, said the U.S. was, quote, "reaching the limits of its patience with Pakistan."

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney picked up two big endorsements this week from GOP foreign policy luminaries: former Secretaries of State Condoleezza Rice and George Shultz.

At this point in the presidential race, endorsements are pretty routine. But these particular endorsements are important, since Romney has encountered some skepticism from foreign policy experts in his party.

Some Republicans expected the long, bloody wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to alter their party's traditional interventionist view. Those Republicans are disappointed in Romney.

The situation in Syria is obviously at a crossroads. After the massacre in Houla that killed more than 100 people — many of them women and children — the diplomatic engine has picked up steam.