The 2012 Republican presidential candidate Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA) said it was “almost hard to imagine how the president’s foreign policy could have been worse as it relates to keeping America safe from jihadists having territory and funds from which they can attack America” on Wednesday’s “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren” on the Fox News Channel.
Romney added that Obama’s foreign policy had “gone severely awry.” And “I used to joke during the campaign that the president didn’t have a foreign policy, and I know Hillary Clinton recently said about the same thing, he doesn’t have a real policy, but the truth is, he does have a foreign policy.” He further described that policy as “withdrawing,” “apologizing,” “shrinking our military” and “not saying anything, not getting involved.”
He particularly criticized the president for failing to arm moderate Syrian rebels and allowing them to become radicalized, arguing “the insurgents in Syria, three years ago, obviously gave a real scare to the Assad regime, had the Assad regime running for cover. They were strong enough, at that point they needed to be coalesced and armed, but we didn’t do that. As a result of not having done that al Qaeda and ISIS and other jihadists have swarmed in, and they’ve really played a key role in the fighting in Syria, and the moderate voices have, in many respects, almost disappeared.”
Romney concluded, “I know that many people don’t feel President Bush had it exactly right, but he did have, certainly right, the concept that this is a war against this huge movement around the world, and when you sit back and pretend like it’s not a real movement, and there are not people doing these things that endanger ourselves and our friends around the world, well, then, obviously bad things happen.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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