The man defeated by Barack Obama in the U. S. presidential election four years ago is chastising him for abandoning the cause of human freedom.
Arizona Republican Senator John McCain delivered the blistering criticism of Mr. Obama's foreign policy Tuesday at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida.
“It is said that this election will turn on domestic and economic issues, but what Mitt Romney knows, and what we know, is that the success at home depends on our leadership in the world.”
He said the president has repeatedly failed to support allies across the globe as well as others who have tried to stand up against tyrants and dictators.
McCain cited Mr. Obama's failure to do more to support the reformers in Iran who protested the reelection of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and said Mr. Obama was failing the opposition in Syria, which has been struggling to topple the regime of Bashar al-Assad.
He also criticized Mr. Obama for allowing countries like Russia and China to have too much sway over U.S. foreign policy. McCain said American presidents used to stand with those who opposed the country's sworn enemies and used to have the courage to face down what he called brutal tyrannies.
McCain said, unlike Mr. Obama, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney knows “if America doesn't lead our adversaries will” and that Mr. Romney has the ability to restore America's to a position of leadership on the global stage.
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'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. 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?”, when the entire world watched as a brave young woman named Neda was shot and bled to death in the street in Tehran, 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.”
“We 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.”
“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 – 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 .”
