Romney blasts Obama's "confused" foreign policy vision in speech to veterans
Less than an hour before President Obama lauded veterans for their service at the annual American Legion conference in Minneapolis on Tuesday, Republican presidential Mitt Romney spoke at the Veterans of Foreign Wars National Convention in San Antonio, Texas - and blasted the president for being "confused" about America's future.
Romney, speaking in the home state of his Republican presidential rival Rick Perry, evoked a bleak vision of America's place in the global arena, warning of jihadists, communists, and the "peril of [Obama's] mismanagement."
"You know better than most that the world is still infected with purveyors of hate and oppression," Romney told the crowd. "Some are jihadists, some are communists, and some are simply tyrants who clothe themselves in any convenient political manifesto. And so once again, American heroes are called upon to defend liberty."
"To win this fight for America's future, we will have to rise above politics," he continued. "I start with the fundamental conviction that America is the greatest nation in the history of the world and a force for good. And while we are not perfect, I will not apologize for America!"
The former Massachusetts governor argued that Mr. Obama was far too "eager to address the world with an apology on his lips and doubt in his heart" - and that the consequences of his so-called "confused" foreign policy vision would be dire.
Pointing to proposed defense cuts in Mr. Obama's 2012 budget plan, Romney warned of increased risks and exposure to service men and women.
"Cuts of this magnitude can only be the product of one of two mistaken beliefs," he said. "On the one hand is wishful thinking that the world is becoming a safer place. The opposite is true. Consider simply the Jihadists, a near-nuclear Iran, a turbulent Middle East, an unstable Pakistan, a delusional North Korea, an assertive Russia, and an emerging global power called China. No, the world is not becoming safer."
The alternative possibility for Mr. Obama's support for defense cuts, Romney suggested, was a lack of investment in America's global power.
"Other hand, that leaves us with the belief that America should become a lesser power," Romney said. "It flows from the conviction that if we are weak, tyrants will choose to be weak as well; that if we could just talk more, engage more, pass more U.N. resolutions, that peace will break out."
"That may be what they think in that Harvard faculty lounge, but it's not what they know on the battlefield!" he added. "We can't lead the world by hoping our enemies will hate us less."
Romney touted his record as a conservative businessman and maligned "enormous waste" in the Pentagon budget.
He promised to cut "billions of dollars in waste and inefficiency and bureaucracy" while ensuring that veterans were well taken care of.
"I will use the money we save for modern ships and planes, and for more troops," he said. "And I'll spend it to ensure that veterans have the care they deserve."
"It's time for us to come together and to carry our message across this country, that we're taking back America, that we're restoring those principles that made America the great nation that it is," Romney said. "Because we believe in America, we're going to keep America strong, and worthy of the great sacrifice of America's veterans and those young men and women who put their lives on the line for us even today."
