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"I think that people, the American people, rightly remember what we as a country accomplished in bringing to justice somebody who killed over 3,000 of our citizens." In 2007, Romney told The Associated Press that it was not worth "moving heaven and earth spending billions of dollars just trying to catch one person." In a debate days later, he clarified the remark: "We'll move everything to get him. But I don't want to buy into the Democratic pitch that this is all about one person
-- Osama bin Laden -- because after we get him, there's going to be another and another," Romney said. Romney was critical of then-candidate Obama's vow to strike al-Qaida targets inside Pakistan if necessary. Obama said at the time that he would be willing to launch military strikes inside Pakistan with or without the government's approval. Ultimately, that's exactly what Obama did to get bin Laden. The decision outraged Pakistan's U.S.-backed civilian government and fanned anti-U.S. sentiment across the country. Romney and his advisers suggested Monday that the decision to order the raid was an easy one. "Even Jimmy Carter would have given that order," Romney said Monday following a campaign appearance in New Hampshire. Romney probably meant that as a jab at the Democratic record on foreign policy generally, but invoking Carter may actually cloud Romney's message. Carter demonstrated how dangerous and politically perilous such decisions can be when he ordered an attempt to rescue American hostages held in Iran. The 1980 mission ultimately embarrassed the nation, ending with the death of eight servicemen and the loss of several American helicopters. The hostage crisis lasted more than a year and helped deny Carter a second term. If the bin Laden raid had gone similarly awry, Obama would have been badly damaged by a military debacle on top of the country's economic woes. A spokeswoman for Carter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
[Associated
Press;
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