Nashua Telegraph: McCain says Obama’s weak foreign policy led to Mideast violence
By Stephanie Dreyer | 9.18.12
In New Hampshire, Truman Project Vice President Mike Breen defends President Obama’s foreign policy record.
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
McCain says Obama’s weak foreign policy led to Mideast violence
By KEVIN LANDRIGAN
Staff Writer
NASHUA – U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said Monday at a town hall-style forum for Republican nominee Mitt Romney that President Obama’s weak foreign policy has led to an “unraveling in the Middle East,” but an ex-Army officer and spokesman for the president’s campaign countered that claim.
“I have every confidence Mitt Rommey has all the instincts of Ronald Reagan,” McCain told about 100 veterans and Romney campaign supporters at the VFW Hall on Quincy Street.
A two-time New Hampshire presidential primary winner, McCain also spoke at VFW posts in Portsmouth and Franklin. He insisted the attack on the U.S. embassy in Libya last week was an act of terror and not the result of an anti-Islamic video that had gone viral on the Internet.
“This is an act of terror despite what you will see our U.N. and our president say,” McCain said.
He added, “It is absolutely outrageous and an insult to every veteran in this room’s intelligence to say, ‘Oh, this was just an act of demonstration.’”
In a telephone interview later in the day, McCain said Obama is leading Romney in polls on handling of his foreign policy due to the killing of Osama bin Laden and the barrage of Obama campaign attacks on Romney’s personal character.
“The lack of leadership by this president has made us less safe. The lack of showing American strength has made us less strong; it always has throughout history,” McCain said. “He’s never used the word success or victory in relation to our foreign policy and our allies and our enemies see us today as inherently weak.”
Obama campaign supporter Michael Breen is a former Army officer who served in tactical operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
A New Hampshire native, Breen is vice president of the Truman National Security Project in Washington. He made stops in Nashua, Laconia and Portsmouth stumping for Obama on Monday.
Breen said Obama’s surgical use of the military led to the killing of bin Laden and other top al-Qaida leaders and the toppling of Libyan dictator Mohamar Qaddafi without loss of U.S. military casualties until last week’s embassy uprising that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three others.