Senator John Kerry defended President Barack Obama’s foreign policy at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday night.
Kerry, who was the Democrats’ presidential candidate in 2004, said that he believes Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s word over that of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
“Barack Obama promised always to stand with Israel to tighten sanctions on Iran—and take nothing off the table,” said Kerry.
“Again and again, the other side has lied about where this president stands and what this president has done. But Prime Minister Netanyahu set the record straight—he said, our two countries have ‘exactly the same policy…’—‘our security cooperation is unprecedented...’
“When it comes to Israel, I'll take the word of Israel's prime minister over Mitt Romney any day,” declared Kerry.
Kerry also said that “President Obama kept his promises. He promised to end the war in Iraq—and he has—and our heroes have come home. He promised to end the war in Afghanistan responsibly—and he is—and our heroes there are coming home. He promised to focus like a laser on al-Qaeda—and he has—our forces have eliminated more of its leadership in the last three years than in all the eight years that came before.
“And after more than ten years without justice for thousands of Americans murdered on 9/11, after Mitt Romney said it would be ‘naïve’ to go into Pakistan to pursue the terrorists, it took President Obama, against the advice of many, to give that order to finally rid this earth of Osama bin Laden. Ask Osama bin Laden if he is better off now than he was four years ago.
“President Obama promised to work with Russia to reduce the threat of nuclear weapons and signed an historic treaty that does just that,” said Kerry. “He promised to lock down nuclear materials around the world, and he has done just that. He refused to accept the false choice between force without diplomacy or diplomacy without force. When a brutal dictator promised to kill his own people ‘like rats,’ President Obama enlisted our allies, built the coalition and shared the burden, so that today—without a single American casualty—Muammar Qaddafi is gone and the people of Libya are free.
“So on one side of this campaign, we have a president who has made America lead like America again. What is there on the other side? An extreme and expedient candidate, who lacks the judgment and vision so vital in the Oval Office. The most inexperienced foreign policy twosome to run for president and vice president in decades,” charged Kerry.
Kerry concluded by saying, “Some of us from a prior war remember coming home was not always easy. President Obama has made it his mission that we welcome our troops home with care, and concern, and the respect they deserve. That is how an exceptional nation says ‘thank you’ to its most exceptional men and women. Mitt Romney says he ‘believes in America’ and he'll restore ‘American exceptionalism.’ I have news for him: We already have an exceptional American as president—and we believe in Barack Obama!”