


WASHINGTON – US President Barack Obama's foreign policy was one of the focal points of the Republican National Convention in Florida Wednesday, and the administration's "hesitant policies" over the past four years came under heavy criticism.
Senator John McCain, who lost to Obama defeated in the 2008 presidential election, said that the US "Can't afford to cause our friends and allies, from Latin America to Europe to Asia to the Middle East and especially in Israel, a nation under existential threat, to doubt America's leadership.
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"We can't afford to give government in Russia and China a veto over how we defend our interests and the progress of our values in the world . We can't afford to have the security of our nation and those who bravely defend it endangered because the government leaks the secrets of their heroic operations to the media," he said.
Obama, he added, has "repeatedly failed" to support the US' allies worldwide, as well as others who have tried to stand up against tyrants and dictators.
"When Iranians rose up by the millions against their oppressive rulers, when they beseeched our president, chanting in English, 'Are you with us or are you with them?' the president missed a historic opportunity to throw America's full moral support behind an Iranian revolution that shared one of our highest interests: ridding Iran of a brutal dictatorship that terrorizes the Middle East and threatens the world," he said
McCain added that GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, had the ability to restore America to a position of leadership on the global stage.
Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was quoted by the Voice of America as saying that the US "cannot be reluctant to lead – and one cannot lead from behind."
"Our friends and allies must again be able to trust us. From Israel to Poland to the Philippines to Colombia and across the world – they must know that we are reliable and consistent and determined," she said.
"And our foes, our foes must have no reason to doubt our resolve – because peace really does come through strength. Our military capability and our technological advantage will be safe in Mitt Romney's hands."
Turning her attention to Obama's seeming reluctance to aid global conflicts, Rice said: "When long-suffering peoples demand liberation from their jailers and torturers and tyrants, the leader of the free-world must stand with them. Unfortunately, this is not happening.
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