WASHINGTON -- Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) on Sunday charged President Barack Obama with "emboldening the Taliban," citing details from a new book by former Defense Secretary Robert Gates that harshly criticizes the president's leadership in the war in Afghanistan.
"I don't think we can ignore what's in that book, and I think for many of us it confirms our worst fears," Rubio said on CBS' "Face the Nation." "And that is that this is an administration full of people that either have the wrong convictions or, in the case of former Secretary Clinton, lack the courage of her convictions."
Rubio pointed to parts of Gates' book that suggest Obama didn't feel that the war in Afghanistan was his war, and that his decision to pull out troops was political.
"You saw that reflected in the decision that [Obama] made," Rubio continued. "At the same time that he announced the surge, he also announced an exit date and strategy, thereby emboldening the Taliban to believe they could wait us out.”
The Florida senator, whose name has been floated as a 2016 presidential contender, said Obama's actions on Afghanistan have had international repercussions.
"Our allies see us as unreliable, and our enemies feel emboldened," Rubio said. "I think that this confirms our worst fears, that this is an administration that lacks a strategic foreign policy and, in fact, is largely driven by politics and tactics."
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