Libyan civil war, Romney initially said in March that Obama had waited too long before becoming involved, and he also criticized Obama for ruling out the use of United States ground forces. The next month, he said that he supported the "specific, limited mission" of enforcing a no-fly zone, but that Obama's support for the ouster of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi constituted "mission creep and mission muddle." In October, after Gaddafi's death, Romney said, "I think people across the world recognize that the world is a better place without Muammar Gaddafi." Pakistan On July 7, 2007, Romney said, "In places like Pakistan, America needs to work not just on a military front." He said he would send in his proposed "Special Partnership Force", a team of Central Intelligence Agency agents and Army special forces that would work with the local population to aid in military support, gun supplies, and "to help make sure that they have the rule of law, water projects, bridges built." In 2007, Romney criticized then-candidate Barack Obama for stating that, as president, he would launch military strikes against "high-value terrorist targets" in Pakistan, even without the Pakistani government's approval. In 2011, after such a strike resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden, Romney said that, if he had been president, he would have done "exactly the same thing." Russia During the 2012 presidential campaign, Romney said that Russia is "without question, our number one geopolitical foe. They - they fight every cause for the world's worst actors.""Mitt Romney Says Russia Is No. 1 Geopolitical Foe" ABC News, March 26, 2012 He called President Vladimir Putin "a real threat to the stability and peace of the world." Romney has opposed ratification of New START, a bilateral nuclear arms reduction treaty between the United States and the Russian Federation, in part because he wishes to deploy defensive missiles on submarines. He has written that the idea of the abolition of nuclear weapons put forward by Ronald Reagan may not be realistic. In 2019, as a US Senator, Romney argued that Russia attempted to influence US elections but that Ukraine did not, and he disagreed with the Trump administration's claim that Ukraine attempted to interfere in the US elections. In May 2022, Romney suggested that the West confront China and other Russia-friendly countries with an ultimatum: "You are either with us, or you are with Russia — you