WASHINGTON, Feb. 26 (UPI) -- Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said Sunday the recent surge in violence in Afghanistan was evidence U.S. President Obama had bungled the war.
Romney said anti-American violence over the accidental burning of Korans by U.S. troops showed that the president had announced plans to withdraw American forces before the security situation had been stabilized.
"It is an extraordinary admission of failure for us to establish the relationships that you'd have to have for a successful transition to the Afghan military and Afghan security leadership," Romney said on "Fox News Sunday." "I hope that we're going to see some improvement very soon, bit it's obviously very dangerous there and the transition effort is not going as well as we'd like to see it go."
Romney said Obama had emboldened Afghan militants by both publicly announcing the withdrawal timetable and also publicly apologizing for the Koran incident.
Romney, a front-runner for the GOP nomination, said Obama's attempt to placate the Afghan people would have consequences on Election Day in the United States.
"We've made an enormous contribution to help the people their achieved freedom and for us to be apologizing at a time like this is something which is very difficult for the American people to countenance," Romney predicted.
