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Questions That Should Have Been Asked At The Final Debate

Angela Blakely |
October 22, 2012 | 8:37 p.m. PDT

Staff Reporter

(Screenshot from debate)
(Screenshot from debate)
The third and final presidential debate brought some of the country’s most important issues on foreign policy to the forefront Monday night.

The most obvious topics were covered: the exit strategy in Afghanistan, relations with Israel, the debt situation with China and imposing sanctions on Iran.

However, some important topics were either briefly mentioned or not brought up at all. Here are some questions that got sidelined during the final Presidential debate.

What role will you play in Europe’s financial crisis?

It seems that most Americans and the international world are more concerned with relations in the Middle East, and those concerns are justified.

However, with Greece in extreme financial crisis and 17 other European Union members still in a large public deficit, Europe’s recovery will play a crucial role in how well the U.S. will recover as well.

Yet, neither President Barack Obama or former Gov. Mitt Romney discussed what their plan would be in tackling the financial crisis in Europe.

Free trade agreement with Latin America?

Economic relations between the U.S. and Latin America were only briefly mentioned by Romney during the debate.

This is surprising because, like China, Latin America has had one of the fastest growing economies in the world for the past decade.

China emphasized a desire to create a free trade agreement with Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay back in June of this year.

Yet, Latin American countries have been reluctant to seal the deal.

U.S. must consider whether it will go ahead with the creation of a sustainable free-trade agreement with Latin America soon before countries in that region decide to align with other world powers.

How imminent of a danger is cyber warfare to our national security?

Just this week, top U.S. officials announced that North Korea has improved their cyber warfare capabilities significantly.

And unfortunately, North Korea isn’t the only threat to consider in this new age of warfare.

Earlier this month, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta also named Russia and China as major threats to the country’s cyber security.

Panetta also stated that a cyber attack could be “as destructive as the terrorist attack on 9/11."

In light of the increased risk of a cyber attack on our nation, it would have been a great moment for either candidate to discuss his plan on growing issue.

 

Read more of Neon Tommy's coverage on the presidential debates here.

Reach Staff Reporter Angela Blakely here.



 

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