The Ukraine Conflict: The Concerns Of Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney 10 Years Ago About Russia Under Vladimir Putin Proven

Illustration of a Russian tank. President Vladimir Putin on Thursday morning 24 February 2022 ordered a Russian attack on Ukraine. (Photo: Russian Ministry of Defense)

JAKARTA - In the 2012 United States election campaign, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney spoke very loudly about the threat of Russia. For Romney, who is currently a Senator from the State of Utah, Russia under President Vladimir Putin is the number one geopolitical enemy of the United States.

"Russia is without a doubt our number one geopolitical enemy", Romney said in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer in March 2012.

"They always have a reason to be the perpetrator of every bad event in the world", Romney said again.

Senator Mitt Romney, 10 years ago already said that Russia under Vladimir Putin is the number one geopolitical enemy of the United States. (Photo: USNEWS.COM/BILL CLARK/CQ ROLL CALL)

But at that time Romney's campaign became the object of ridicule for his fellow US presidential candidate, Barack Obama.

“When you are asked, what is America's greatest geopolitical threat? You answered Russia, not Al Qaeda. You said Russia. It was a political policy of the 1980s, and now it will be made into American policy again. The cold war ended 20 years ago", Obama said against Romney's campaign, in the third US presidential debate in October 2012.

Called Desperate Presidential Candidate

Obama and his team mock Romney. Saying that the presidential candidate is desperate to find another way when a threat is faced by the United States.

At that time Obama's attack was a success. He managed to win sympathy, positioning himself as the candidate for President of the United States who best understands the threat to his country, which he calls Al Qaeda. Romney, who in 2012 was 65 years old, was considered the older generation, less contemporary, and could not escape the confines of Cold War thought.

“The 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back because the Cold War’s been over for 20 years.” pic.twitter.com/3XmIEyloTo

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) February 21, 2022

And now it turns out that all of Romney's words have been proven after President Vladimir Putin authorized the invasion of Russian troops into Ukraine. Russian war vehicles are reported to have entered Ukraine via the Crimean Peninsula.

In the video released by Ukrainian troops at the border, it is stated that Russian troops began entering Ukraine on February 24, 2022, at 06:48 local time. The Ukrainians said they were attacked by Russia and its compatriot, Belarus, with artillery and small arms.

In response to the attack, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that the West would not remain silent as President Putin launched a campaign to attack Ukraine.

If Ronald Reagan Was Still President

Tyler Cowen, a professor at George Mason University in Virginia, wrote his opinion on Bloomberg by assuming that the United States is currently still led by the late former President Ronald Reagan.

“The Ukraine crisis makes me miss the late Ronald Reagan. More importantly, it made me appreciate his views on morality and reality more. Reagan did understand that some world leaders were evil. They seek to limit the freedom of citizens, and this kind of government is a threat to global security”, Cowen wrote, in his column for Bloomberg.

Ronald Reagan (right) and Mikhail Gorbachev signed the INF treaty on December 8, 1987, limiting the use of intermediate-range nuclear missiles. (Photo: Wikipedia)

Reagan who led the United States during the Cold War really saw the Soviet Union and the communists as enemy number one. Russia today is different from the Soviets because its ideology is no longer communist. But their foreign policy was no different. Putin is proven to have moved troops to Georgia, Syria, and now Ukraine.

What appeared to be Romney's skinniness during the 2012 US presidential election campaign, and Obama used to make fun of him, is now evident. Russia's attack on Ukraine at the behest of President Vladimir Putin on Thursday morning February 24, 2022, is a fact, that thought that was considered obsolete at one time could turn 180 degrees in the future.