President Barack Obama's foreign policy has been marked by a strategy of "retreat" across the globe, Navy SEALs veteran and GOP Rep. Ryan Zinke tells
Newsmax TV.
In an interview with "Newsmax Prime" hosts J.D. Hayworth and Miranda Khan on Friday, the Montana lawmaker – the first Navy SEAL elected to the House and now serving on the Armed Services Committee as well as the Committee on Natural Resources – contends our allies no longer trust America as a partner.
"He has learned to say 'retreat' in five languages," Zinke said of Obama.
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Zinke points to foreign policy failures in the South China Sea, where Beijing is challenging territorial limits by aggressively
building man-made islands, as well as in Europe and the Mideast.
"We've walked away from our treaty obligations in Ukraine, putting NATO at risk," Zinke said. "Then you turn to the Middle East, where you now have Russia being the most influential player."
In Iran, he adds, "We are in full retreat and we've given a legal framework for Iran to have as many as 100 armed nuclear [intercontinental ballistic missiles] in 13 years. How is that in our best interest?"
Zinke also decried the lack of services extended to veterans, including those who fought 50 years ago in Vietnam – and urged that the VA be turned on its head, especially the bureaucracy.
"These are veterans that have sacrificed for our country. In some cases, their friends lost their lives," he said. "We're just looking at the effects of traumatic brain injury long term, and they're retiring, and they don't get the treatment that they were told they would and deserve."
"From a military commander's point of view, push more flexibility…. rather than one-size fits all from a bureaucracy that just doesn't understand what happens," he urged. "We have more women serving in the military than any time in our nation's history, and yet the VA has not done a pivot to look at women's healthcare issues."
"Whether you're a man or a woman, you should get the same degree of healthcare from our VA. Right now we're not, we're not seeing it," he said.