Romney backs Bush stance on troops

AMHERST -- Amid growing concern among Republicans over the course of the war in Iraq, Governor Mitt Romney expressed support yesterday for President Bush's approach and warned that a premature withdrawal of American troops would inspire terrorists worldwide.

''The enemy is emboldened by anything other than the strength of America," Romney said.

Romney, who is weighing a presidential run in 2008, said in a brief interview yesterday that, like many Americans, he wants to see US troops pulled out of Iraq as soon as possible and stability brought to the country ''on the earliest possible timetable." But he declined to advocate a specific timetable for bringing troops home and said it would be a mistake if the Bush administration committed to one publicly.

Romney's comments were made as alarm grows within the GOP over mounting US casualties and the political damage the war could do to the Republican Party.

A leading Republican senator, Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, told ABC's ''This Week" on Sunday that Iraq was not ''dissimilar to where we were in Vietnam."

''We should start figuring out how we get out of there," said Hagel, who is also considered a potential candidate for the GOP nomination in 2008. ''Our involvement there has destabilized the Middle East. And the longer we stay there, I think the further destabilization will occur."

Asked yesterday about Hagel's remarks, Romney asserted that the wars in Iraq and Vietnam were quite different.

''I think we as a nation look with dismay at the ongoing insurgency in Iraq and hope for a speedy conclusion," Romney said. ''But there is not a viable option of walking away as we did in Vietnam, with scenes of helicopters leaving from the roof of the embassy."

''The setting we're in," Romney continued, ''is one where we face not a local enemy, but an enemy to civilization, and therefore, our response must be global and must be sustained and committed."

Romney has said he has attended 25 to 30 funerals for area soldiers killed in Iraq or in other overseas action since becoming governor. Last week, when asked about the vigil that Cindy Sheehan, whose son was killed in Iraq, had been keeping outside Bush's Texas ranch, Romney offered cautious words of support for the president.

''I think the president is in the unenviable position of knowing he has responsibility for protecting the security of hundreds of millions and knowing that he puts thousands in harm's way to do so," Romney said.

''And it's an extraordinary obligation and burden that the president faces," he continued, recalling the sacrifices of earlier wars. ''Every American life -- every life -- is precious, and it's an extraordinary burden, which the president carries very well and with dignity."

Yesterday Romney stressed that he is not a senator or president who has the power to make decisions about war and peace. Though he answered questions when pressed by a reporter, Romney said, ''I wouldn't presume as a governor to try and weigh in on a matter which is outside gubernatorial turf."

But the direction the war in Iraq takes could affect the prospects of Romney or other Republicans in 2008. Jim Nuzzo, a Massachusetts-based Republican strategist, said the best scenario for the governor in 2008 would be if Iraq stabilizes. If Iraq is still a front-burner issue, he said, Romney will have a tough time against candidates with deeper international resumes.

''The more foreign policy factors in, the tougher the governor's run becomes, because that's not what he brings to the table," said Nuzzo, managing director of Colchester Group, a political strategy firm.

If Iraq is still a major issue in 2008, other potential presidential candidates such as Senator John McCain of Arizona, who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam, and Hagel, who received two Purple Hearts for his service in Vietnam, could run on their defense credentials. Nuzzo, however, contends that McCain does not have enough support among Republicans to win a presidential nomination and that Hagel ''slit his throat" when he compared Iraq to Vietnam.

Romney, a successful business executive who was elected governor in 2002, sits on a national Homeland Security advisory committee, which advises the secretary of homeland security. Romney led the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Next month he travels to Israel in a trip some observers contend is designed to burnish his international experience.

The governor is expected to announce this fall whether he will seek another term. If he decides to forgo a gubernatorial run, it will be widely read as a signal that he will run for president.

Romney has suggested that he speaks cautiously about public matters because of a painful lesson his father learned. George W. Romney, a former Michigan governor, dropped a 1968 presidential bid after his comments about being ''brainwashed" into supporting the war in Vietnam.

''The careful selection of words is something I'm more attuned to because Dad fell into that quagmire," Romney is quoted as saying in the September issue of The Atlantic magazine.

Meanwhile, Republicans are fretting over several developments: the death toll in Iraq; the campaign by an Iraq war veteran, who, running as a Democrat, came close this month to defeating a Republican candidate in a special House election in a heavily GOP district in Ohio; and the significant fall of President Bush's approval ratings.

Bush told a gathering of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Salt Lake City yesterday: ''A policy of retreat will not bring us safety."

Globe correspondent Michael Levenson contributed to this report. Scott Helman can be reached at shelman@globe.com.