US President Barack Obama, in some of his most blunt remarks to date, said on Monday that Osama bin Laden would have escaped if the United States had sought Pakistan’s permission ahead of the raid on the al Qaeda leader’s compound.
Obama administration officials have previously justified the decision not to involve Islamabad by citing the risk that bin Laden might somehow be tipped off and flee his compound in Abbottabad before the team of Navy SEALs arrived.
In Monday’s presidential foreign policy debate against Republican opponent Mitt Romney, Obama presented such risk as a certainty.
“If we had asked Pakistan for permission, we would not have gotten him,” Obama said.
The bin Laden raid was one of the many issues Obama used to differentiate himself from his opponent.
Romney during his failed bid for the 2008 Republican nomination criticized Obama for warning publicly that, if Islamabad didn’t act, he would go into Pakistan to get high value targets like bin Laden. Romney suggested such comments were not helpful in building ties.
On Monday, Romney said he also would have ordered the raid.
“We had to go into Pakistan. We had to go in there to get Osama bin Laden. That was the right thing to do,” Romney said.