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Obama Derides Romney on “Battleship” Approach to Military Spending

HeadlineOct 23, 2012

President Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney met for their third and final presidential debate Monday night before the general election two weeks from today. With the focus on foreign policy, both candidates shared wide agreement on issues including support for the Israeli government, the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan, and opposition to U.S. military involvement in Syria. But they clashed over a few key points, including military spending, Iran and Libya. In one exchange, Obama chided Romney for seeking to increase military spending by an additional $2 trillion.

President Obama: “I think Governor Romney maybe hasn’t spent enough time looking at how our military works. You mentioned the Navy, for example, and that we have fewer ships than we did in 1916. Well, Governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets, because the nature of our military has changed. We have these things called aircraft carriers where planes land on them. We have these ships that go underwater, nuclear submarines. And so, the question is not a game of Battleship where we’re counting ships; it’s — it’s what are our capabilities.”

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