Republican Candidates Weak on War on Terror, Says Democratic National Committee

The following was released today by the Democratic National Committee:

By telling the Associated Press that catching Bin Laden "is not worth moving heaven and earth," Mitt Romney crystallized exactly why Republican presidential candidates are weak on the war on terror, and why America needs real and strong leadership in the White House. [AP, 4/26/07] Romney's comments in New Hampshire on Thursday parallel the Bush Administration's decisions to back down from catching Bin Laden less than six months after September 11, 2001, relegating the war on terror and the war in Afghanistan to second tier status, choosing to initiate a war with Iraq under false pretenses, and failing to fund and support basic security measures recommended by the 9/11 Commission.

Romney is not alone, however, in the field of Republican presidential candidates. Republican candidate Rudy Giuliani was Mayor of New York City for almost the entire time between the first bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993 and Osama Bin Laden's attacks on September 11, 2001. During the entire time, Giuliani refused to implement measures to improve radio interoperability for first responders, cited as a major problem by the commission that investigated the first attack, and which failed our first responders on 9/11. Giuliani also admitted he did not know how the Bush-McCain escalation was going in Iraq, nor how much further along Iran and North Korea were with the development of nuclear weapons. Romney, Giuliani, and McCain have all also stubbornly backed the President's failed strategy in Iraq, with McCain leading the charge for the Bush-McCain escalation that has yielded minimal results. [New York Times, 4/7/07; AP, 4/24/07; South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 10/1/06; Washington Post, McCain op-ed, 4/8/07; New York Magazine, 3/26/07; Mitt Romney on "The Big Show," Fox News Channel, 4/3/07]

"It seems Mitt Romney and his Republican cohorts need to be reminded that Osama Bin Laden was the mastermind behind the September 11th attack on America," said Democratic National Committee Communications Director Karen Finney. "Calling off the hunt for Bin Laden and downgrading the real war on terror in favor of starting a war in Iraq under false pretenses has made America less safe. The American people want strong leadership, not more of the same bumbling and disastrous foreign policy the Bush Administration has made infamous."

Paid for and authorized by the Democratic National Committee, http://www.democrats.org. This communication is not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.