Mitt Romney hits out at Barack’s foreign policy

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Wednesday alleged that US President Barack Obama has demonstrated a lack of clarity on foreign policy, even as he condemned the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi.

Romney condemned the attack, that left the American Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and three other US nationals dead when a violent mob of militiamen stormed the Consulate in Benghazi protesting against a US-made movie deemed offensive against Islam, saying that violence against American individuals and embassies is outrageous.

‘It's disgusting. It breaks the hearts of all of us who think of these people who have served during their lives the cause of freedom and justice and honour,’ he said, adding that America will not tolerate attacks against its citizens and embassies.

‘I think President Obama has demonstrated a lack of clarity as to a foreign policy,’ Romney told reporters in Jacksonville, Florida.

‘My foreign policy has three fundamental branches: first, confidence in our cause, a recognition that the principles America was based upon are not something we shrink from or apologise for, that we stand for those principles,’ Romney said.

‘The second is clarity in our purpose, which is that when we have a foreign policy objective, we describe it honestly and clearly to the American people, to Congress and to the people of the world,’ he said.

‘And number three is resolve in our might, that in those rare circumstances where we decide it's essential for us to apply military might, that we do so with overwhelming force, that we do so in the clarity of a mission, understanding the nature of the US interest involved, understanding when the mission would be complete, what will be left behind us when that mission has been terminated,’ Romney said. ‘These elements, I believe, are essential to our foreign policy.....As I've watched over the past three and a half years, the President has had some successes. He's had some failures. It's a hit-or-miss approach, but it has not been based upon sound foreign policy,’ Romney alleged.