Advance excerpts of Pawlenty’s foreign policy speech
Tim Pawlenty's campaign for president has released advance excerpts of today address to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City. Pawlenty will make his remarks this morning at 8:30 Central.
Here are the remarks released by the campaign.
On America's response to the Arab Spring:
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But President Obama has failed to formulate and carry out an effective and coherent strategy in response to these events. He has been timid, slow, and too often without a clear understanding of our interests or a clear commitment to our principles.
On Obama's foreign policy:
President Obama has ignored that lesson of history. Instead of promoting democracy - whose fruit we see now ripening across the region - he adopted a murky policy he called "engagement."
"Engagement" meant that in 2009, when the Iranian ayatollahs stole an election, and the people of that country rose up in protest, President Obama held his tongue. His silence validated the mullahs, despite the blood on their hands and the nuclear centrifuges in their tunnels.
On America's Relationship with Israel:
Israeli-Palestinian peace is further away now than the day Barack Obama came to office. But that does not have to be a permanent situation. We must recognize that peace will only come if everyone in the region perceives clearly that America stands strongly with Israel.
On the Republican Party and Foreign Policy:
What is wrong, is for the Republican Party to shrink from the challenges of American leadership in the world. History repeatedly warns us that in the long run, weakness in foreign policy costs us and our children much more than we'll save in a budget line item. America already has one political party devoted to decline, retrenchment, and withdrawal; it does not need a second one.