Romney: GOP not neglecting Afghan war in presidential campaign

During a campaign stop in Iowa, weeks after securing the Republican presidential nomination, Romney pointed out he addressed the Afghan conflict in his acceptance speech during the party’s national convention in Florida. 

{mosads}The GOP candidate slammed the Obama administration over recent revelations that the White House orchestrated the so-called sequestration plan that is threatening to cut roughly $500 billion from the Pentagon’s coffers. 

“I actually talked about our military and our commitment to our military and the fact that our president has actually proposed and is going to oversee a dramatic cutback on our military,” according to Romney. 

“My speech talked about maintaining our commitment to the military — and as you know, I took time out of our convention to go to the American legion to speak to our veterans and speak about our commitment in Afghanistan and elsewhere,” he told reporters on Friday. 

But aside from the attacks, Romney has yet to put forth any solutions or suggestions of his own regarding key national security and foreign policy issues. 

Over the past few months, the Obama camp has latched onto that fact and hit the Romney campaign hard on those issues, particularly during the Democratic National Convention this week. 

In contrast to Romney’s lack of a national security platform, Democrats highlighted President Obama’s decision to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and for green-lighting the dangerous U.S. special operations raid in Pakistan that ended with the death of Osama bin Laden. 

“Ask Osama bin Laden if he’s better off now than he was four years ago,” Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) said during his convention speech Thursday night, taking a direct shot at the GOP’s main attack line against the Obama campaign. 

Obama chided Romney and his running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), for their lack of experience in the foreign policy arena during his acceptance speech later that same evening. 

“My opponent and his running mate are new [to foreign policy],” Obama said, drawing cheers and laughter from the crowd in Charlotte, N.C. 

In campaign ads released earlier this year, Obama camp has openly questioned whether Romney would have made the same call to go in after bin Laden. 

That said, Obama’s decision to approve the military raid into Pakistan to get the al Qaeda leader exemplified the leadership embodied by the current administration on foreign policy and national security, according to Vice President Biden. 

“His response was decisive. He said do it. And justice was done,” Biden told the raucous crowd during his acceptance speech on Thursday night.