Romney: Obama Wrong To Take Troops in Iraq off the Table

‘As a result of the mistakes that have been made in the past on the President’s part, we now have terrible visions being shown on TV’

Romney: Obama Wrong To Take Troops in Iraq Off the Table (RealClearPolitics)

BOB SCHIEFFER: And we go now to Salt Lake City where former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney is standing by. Governor, thank you so much for joining us. This is the third American now that we've seen executed. You said recently about the President's foreign policy. I'm going to quote here, "It's tempting to think he is just inept." What should we be doing differently now in this war against ISIS and are we doing enough?

MITT ROMNEY (Former Massachusetts Governor): Well, first of all, what we should have done by now is have-- is have American troops staying by in-- in Iraq, that was something that we argued for years ago. The President didn't do it. Likewise, we should have armed the moderates in Syria a long time ago so that they'd be able to keep something like ISIS from being formed. And as a result of the mistakes that have been made in the past on the President's part, we now have terrible visions being shown on TV and-- and, of course, the threat to ourselves here in the homeland. And-- and the right course for this nation is to do whatever it takes to destroy and defeat ISIS. And, of course, it's appropriate for us to provide support to the Iraqi military and intelligence. That we should have been doing a long time ago. And I think the President's wrong in saying that under no circumstances will he consider ground troops. No one wants to put their own ground troops there. But if you're going to defeat something, you don't tell the enemy exactly what you plan on doing or what you won't do. You say we're going to defeat you regardless of the consequence.

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