Washington: Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney seized an opportunity to attack President Barack Obama for describing the recent unrest and anti-US protests in the Middle East as `bumps in the road,` saying he doesn`t share the same view.
In a series of interviews, Romney hammered Obama of using the term "bumps in the road", saying this was revealing.
"Look, the world looks at the events going on. They don`t see these events as bumps in the road. These are lives. This is humanity," Romney said during an election speech in Pueblo, Colorado.
"This is freedom. Freedom must be on the march. We must stand for freedom. I see these extraordinary aircraft here and know that behind them are men and women who`ve flown them in peace, in times of danger. They fly them to protect us. They fly to make sure the world is a safer place," Romney said.
"His indication that developments in the Middle East represent bumps in the road is a very different view than I have. The president ? I can`t imagine saying something like the assassination of ambassadors is a bump in the road, when you look at the entire context, the assassination, the Muslim Brotherhood president being elected in Egypt, 20,000 people killed in Syria, Iran close to becoming a nuclear nation ? these are far from being bumps in the road," Romney said.
"Well, I`d said even at the time that this is going to be a rocky path. The question presumes that somehow we could have stopped this wave of change. I think it was absolutely the right thing for us to do to align ourselves with democracy, universal rights, a notion that people have to be able to participate in their own governance," Obama said in an interview to the CBS 60 minutes aired on Sunday.
"There are strains of extremism, and anti-Americanism, and anti-Western sentiment. And, you know, can be tapped into by demagogues. There will probably be some times where we bump up against some of these countries and have strong disagreements, but I do think that over the long term we are more likely to get a Middle East and North Africa that is more peaceful, more prosperous and more aligned with our interests," Obama said in his interview.
"When he president was speaking about "bumps in the road" he was talking about the developments in the Middle East, and that includes an assassination. It includes a Muslim Brotherhood individual becoming president of Egypt. It includes Syria being in tumult," Romney told the News Agencies.
"It includes Iran being on the cusp of nuclear capability. It includes Pakistan being in commotion," he said.
"There are extraordinary events going on in the Middle East, and considering those events, either one of them or all of them collectively, as bumps in the road shows a person who has a very different perspective about world affairs than the perspective I have. I think this is a time for America to exert leadership and this is not something that we are doing in the Middle East...," Romney said.
PTI
