Rick Santorum tried to distinguish himself from the rest of the Republican field in tonight’s Fox News/Google debate by continuing to take a strong stand on national security issues. Instead of supporting a hasty withdrawal from Iraq, Santorum called for “victory.”
“I’m not for taking them out of the region,” the former senator from Pennsylvania said in response to a question about whether he’d support drawing down in Iraq. “Our generals are being clear we need to continue to stabilize Iraq. … I’m hearing numbers of 20– 30,000 troops potentially to remain in Iraq — not indefinitely — but to continue to make sure this is a stable transition. This is the difference between Congressman Paul, Gov. Huntsman, Gov. Perry and myself when it comes to the issue. I stand up and say when we engage in Iraq and Afghanistan, we engage because we want to be successful. We want victory. We want to have accomplished a national security objective for this country.”
As Jen Rubin notes, Santorum also gave a strong answer on Afghanistan:
For his part, Jon Huntsman, President Obama’s former ambassador to China, called for immediate withdrawal from Afghanistan:
The debate mainly focused on economic questions, social issues, and immigration, with only a couple questions devoted to foreign policy and national security.
