MITT TALKS TOUGH – AT 10:45 A.M. ET:  In a serious foreign-policy statement, Mitt Romney shows that he understands the stakes in today's struggles, and also understands that the credible threat of force may be the best guarantee of peace, or something approaching it. 

Republican US presidential candidate Mitt Romney suggested Friday that he would be prepared to send ground troops into Syria in order to secure loose chemical weapons.

Speaking to CBS News, Romney said, "I think we have to also be ready to take whatever action is necessary to assure that we do not have any kind of weapons of mass destruction falling into the hands terrorists. And whether that requires troops or whether that requires other action by our friends and allies there -- Turkey is very involved, Saudi Arabia is -- but of course, we have to retain the option to protect ourselves and our friends from weapons of mass destruction."

Romney's comments came after US President Barack Obama warned earlier this week that if Syrian President Bashar Assad were to use his chemical weapons or move them in a threatening manner it would constitute "a red line."

Syria last month acknowledged for the first time that it had chemical and biological weapons and said it could use them if foreign countries intervene -- a threat that drew strong warnings from Washington and its allies.

Western countries and Israel have expressed fears chemical weapons could fall into the hands of militant groups as Assad's authority erodes.

COMMENT:  The difference between Romney and Obama, among other major differences, is that the countries of the world have learned that Obama can't be taken seriously.  Romney can. 

We are losing badly in many parts of the world, and it will take a change of administrations to reverse that trend, and put our foreign policy back together.

August 25, 2012