Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, pulled no punches in attacking President Obama’s foreign policy record Tuesday, calling his Middle East policy an “abysmal failure” and saying he’s gone “AWOL” on negotiations over looming cuts to the federal defense budget.
“I’m telling you, it is unraveling [in Afghanistan] because all the president talks about is withdrawal and leaving, and you are seeing a resurgence of al Qaeda there, so as far as the Middle East is concerned, this president’s national security policy has been an abysmal failure,” Mr. McCain said on “Fox and Friends,” adding that he has not seen “a more feckless foreign policy since President Carter.”
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Mr. McCain is a top surrogate for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who has been criticized for not spending enough time discussing the war in Afghanistan or mentioning American troops during the Republican National Convention. Democrats, notably Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., are quick to remind the GOP of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in May 2011, repeating the bumper sticker re-election message for Mr. Obama that “Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive.”
Mr. McCain also chided the president for not leading more to prevent looming defense cuts of approximately half a trillion dollars that were part of an agreement to raise the nation’s debt ceiling last summer. He called the process, known as “sequestration,” a “mistake.”
“The president is sitting idly by watching as this train wreck approaches,” he said. “It’s a total lack of leadership or concern for our nation’s security.
“He’s — again — AWOL,” Mr. McCain continued. “I’m not sure he knows what that means.”
