Washington: Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has given “F” grade to the Obama administration’s foreign policy, inviting criticism from the US President’s campaign which said he was misguided and misinformed.
The clash between the two campaigns started after Romney in an interview to the CBS news said that he would give Obama a poor “F” grade on his foreign policy front even as he was successful in eliminating al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Obama and Romney (R).
“I’d look at the fact that he was looking to have a force of American troops staying in Iraq, securing what had been so hard won there, and with the Status of Forces agreement. He failed to achieve it,” Romney said.
“In the Middle East, the Arab spring has become the Arab Winter. That’s hardly a success. As I look around the world, I have to believe his positions in foreign policy have not communicated American strength and resolve,” he said.
The Obama campaign immediately fired back.
“Romney’s comment assigning a grade to President Obama’s foreign policy is just as misguided and misinformed as his statement about Russia being our top geopolitical foe,” Tim Roemer, the former US Ambassador to India, said in a statement on behalf of the Obama campaign.
“Since taking office, President Obama has responsibly ended the war in Iraq; decimated al-Qaeda’s leadership, including bin Laden; is winding down the war in Afghanistan; reduced the threat of nuclear weapons; strengthened our alliances; increased our exports overseas, creating jobs here at home; and led the world in putting crippling sanctions on Iran,” he said.
“Romney is out of the mainstream even of his own party on foreign policy, and many prominent Republican experts have recognised President Obama’s accomplishments on these issues,” Roemer said.
PTI
