Testifying on Capitol Hill today, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said that financing the Iraq war with borrowed cash — and thereby raising the national deficit — was a “mistake.” The war came at a huge cost to the U.S. “We ran that war on a credit card,” said Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), who asked Panetta about using borrowed money to finance wars. Panetta responded:

If we repeated the mistake of not paying for the war that we decide to engage in, the result would be that you would simply add more to the deficit and the debt of this country for the future. You just put the burden on our kids for the future…

It’s important that we recognize the costs that are involved, and that frankly all of us bear the responsibility to bear those costs if we’re willing to engage in war.

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According to U.S. News and World Report, the Congressional Budget office put the cost of war at $800 billion (that’s what the Center for American Progress’s Iraq War Ledger said, too). But President Obama has said the war, which he opposed and finally ended, costed $1 trillion. Those costs are likely to rise yet — by 2014, the post-9/11 combat veteran cohort will be bigger than the Vietnam veteran cohort, and a recent report said maintaining veterans benefits will soon cost more than maintaining active duty military forces.

Mitt Romney has threatened to declare China a currency manipulator and, in a February Wall Street Journal oped on China, stated, “A nation that represses its own people cannot ultimately be a trusted partner in an international system based on economic and political freedom.” But while his campaign has had no shortage of tough talk towards China, Romney’s history at Bain Capital and his ongoing investments in its funds suggest the former Massachusetts Governor has looked favorably on companies that benefit from China’s low labor costs and controlled currency.

Even more strikingly, Reuters’ Rachelle Younglai reports today: “As chairman of the 2002 Winter Olympics, he also said Beijing should not be punished for human rights abuses.” According to Younglai, Romney was quoted in the Chicago Tribune saying:

They have practices, as reported in the media, that violate my sense of human rights, but we should not build walls even if we vehemently disagree with many of their practices. Building bridges increases the possibility for spreading the ideas of civil societies.

Romney’s inconsistent positions on China have already been cited by fellow Republicans and Washington policy analysts as a casualty of campaign season rhetoric. Last February, Romney supporter Jon Huntsman called Romney’s China policy “wrongheaded,” and dismissed his bluster on China as “typical campaign rhetoric.”

That rhetoric also stands at odds with Romney’s business record. His history at Bain Capital, the private equity firm he founded in 1984 and ran through 1999, may pose some difficult questions for a candidate who now claims he would declare China a currency manipulator if elected president. His presidential campaign promotes how three of the companies that Bain invested in during this time — Staples, Sports Authority and Dominos Pizza — created more than 100,000 jobs combined. But when Reuters conducted an examination of products at Staples and Sports Authority stores, they found that Chinese manufactured products formed the backbone of the companies’ business. 40 percent of Staples products in the sample and two-thirds of Sports Authority products were manufactured in China. Dominos has, since Romney left Bain, announced plans to franchise their restaurant in China.

Bain’s heavy investments in companies that outsource manufacturing to China means that Romney, and the company he helped found, directly benefited from Beijing’s undervaluation of its currency and inexpensive labor.

While talking tough on China, Romney toed a very different line while CEO of Bain and chairman of the 2002 Winter Olympics. Indeed, Bain’s investments in China and Romney’s ongoing investments — including, via a Bain fund, in a controversial Chinese company which provides surveillance tools to the Chinese government — underscores the disconnect between Romney’s business career and positions taken in his campaign.

Global approval levels of President Barack Obama’s foreign policy have declined significantly since he first took office. But a new public opinion poll on Obama’s approval ratings abroad reflect that despite widespread opposition to the administration’s drone strike policy and a widespread perception that the U.S. acts unilaterally, attitudes toward the U.S. are generally more positive than in 2008, the final year of the George W. Bush administration.

The Pew Global Attitudes Project, conducted by the Pew Research Center, finds that key American allies remains largely confident. 80 percent of Europeans expressed “confidence in Obama,” a six percent reduction from 2009, and 74 percent of of Japanese expressed confidence, an eleven percent reduction. However, the U.S. remains unpopular in strategically important country’s in the Muslim world, including: Egypt; Jordan; Turkey and Pakistan.

Perceptions of the U.S. role in the world have also shifted during the past three years. Majorities in Germany (62 percent), Britain (58 percent), France (57 percent), and Spain (57 percent) now name China as the world’s top economic power.

The administration’s drone strike policy, which the White House has found challenging to explain to a domestic audience disconcerted by the president’s “kill list” of drone strike targets, face widespread opposition abroad. In 17 of the 20 countries polled, more than half of poll respondents disapproved of U.S. drone strikes targeting extremists in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. The U.S. was the only country in which a majority — 62 percent — approved of drone strikes.

Despite the opposition to the administration’s drone policy, there is considerable support for Obama’s reelection, particularly in Europe. 92 percent of French and 89 percent of German respondents support his bid.

Perhaps most importantly, majorities or pluralities in 12 of the countries polled expressed a favorable opinion of the U.S. while the prevailing view is negative in only five nations. In France, Spain and Germany the percentage of people with a positive view of the U.S. is at least 20 percentage points higher than in 2008, the final year of the George W. Bush administration. “While confidence in Obama has slipped, in many of the countries surveyed, people continue to express confidence in President Obama’s foreign policy leadership,” says the report.

While often overlooked, American “soft power” remains highly regarded. The “American way” of doing business is especially popular in the Arab world – more than half in Lebanon (63 percent), Tunisia (59 percent), Jordan (59 percent) and Egypt (52 percent) say they like this aspect of American. Majorities or pluralities in 18 of 20 countries view the U.S.’s contributions to science, technology, music and television positively.