Romney calls it 'peacetime'

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WASHINGTON, April 26 (UPI) -- Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney chastised President Obama for his "peacetime spending binge," overlooking two wars the U.S. military is fighting.

Romney made the mistake in an op-ed piece published Monday in the New Hampshire Union Leader in Manchester, a newspaper that plays a key role in Republican politics in the state, which has the first presidential primary, the Los Angeles Times reported.

"Barack Obama is facing a financial emergency on a grander scale. Yet his approach has been to engage in one of the biggest peacetime spending binges in American history," Romney said, going on to attack the stimulus and other Obama programs while failing to recognize the United States is still fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan while also playing a supporting role in hostilities in Libya.

The gaffe occurred on the day Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour announced he was not a candidate in next year's race for the Republican nomination. That removes one Romney rival from what is still a crowded field.