Romney was the first GOP candidate for president to credit Obama for helping to hasten the strongman’s demise, a departure for a rival who has labeled the president’s foreign policy as feckless and specifically questioned the US mission in Libya.
Romney’s comments on Libya yesterday belie a general reluctance among many in the Republican field to embrace foreign military intervention. Their focus has instead been on courting voters more worried about problems at home than abroad.
Republicans have also been wary of crediting Obama with a foreign policy victory that could bolster his national security credentials. The killing of Khadafy, along with the deaths of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan and cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen, ranks as one of the milestones of the Obama presidency.
The president seized the opportunity to hail the turn of events.
“Without putting a single US service member on the ground, we achieved our objectives, and our NATO mission will soon come to an end,’’ he said. “This comes at a time when we see the strength of American leadership across the world.’’
Romney was initially supportive of American military intervention there, saying it was important for the United States and NATO to enforce a no-fly zone to protect Libyan civilians. But when Obama, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, and Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain said in a joint statement in April that “so long as Khadafy is in power, NATO must maintain its operations,’’ Romney called it “another example of mission creep and mission muddle.’’
He said he agreed with the assessment of former UN ambassador John Bolton that Obama had set himself up for massive strategic failure by demanding Khadafy’s ouster while restricting military force to the limited objective of protecting civilians.
He also posed a question that still confronts Libya after the fall of Khadafy: “The question that comes up is, ‘Who’s going to take his place,’ ’’ Romney said in July. “Who’s going to own Libya if we get rid of the government there?’’
