President Obama’s wrongheaded view of the world has weakened America’s military and turned foreign policy into a “mess” — and Republicans bear some of the responsibility : Rep. Buck McKeon

The Heritage Foundation

Armed Services Chairman on Obama: ‘Our Foreign Policy Is a Mess’

Ken McIntyre

May 7, 2014 at 5:50 pm

President Obama’s wrongheaded view of the world has weakened America’s military and turned foreign policy into a “mess” — and Republicans bear some of the responsibility, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said yesterday.
“It is no accident that the expansion of Russia and China has come at the exact moment when we are dismantling our military and retreating from the world,” Rep. Buck McKeon (R- Calif.) said in a speech at The Heritage Foundation aimed at drawing attention to defense and national security issues.
“With Russia invading Ukraine, China provoking our Pacific allies, al-Qaeda regrouping, North Korea banging the drum, and ongoing turmoil in the Middle East, I think the president has lost sight of his purpose here,” McKeon said.
McKeon’s appearance at Heritage was part of “Protect America Month” events organized by the think tank.
Americans, McKeon argued, ought to be asking what the nation’s central foreign policy goal is, and what role the U.S. military has in advancing it.  He said:

“Put plainly, our foreign policy is a mess. We have no coherent strategy.  I’m not sure if we’re supposed to be pivoting to Asia, pivoting to the Middle East, or pivoting back to Europe.”

The California Republican, who announced four months ago that he will retire next January after 22 years in Congress, argued that most Americans want to live “in peace and security,” free to prosper and make their own decisions without worrying about what’s going on in “faraway lands.”
He cited Abraham Lincoln’s formula that government’s legitimate aim is “to do for a community of people whatever they need to have done, but cannot do for themselves.”
“An individual can go out and find health care coverage without the government,” McKeon said. “They can save for retirement without the government. They can start a business without the government. But they cannot resist foreign aggression without a strong standing military.”

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