There are about 300 people in the audience there in boca raton, millions more watching from home and, george, every debate has changed the race. No question about it. Round one, a big win f for governor romney. President obama, scored a more narrow victory last week and tonight our abc the Washington Post poll, what happens tonight will set the stage. We want to take a look because in the audience already, mrs. Romney, mrs. Obama. Both of whom said they get more nervous than the candidates at these debates. A lot of pressure also on tonights moderator, Bob Schieffer of cbs news. The third time hes moderated a president ial debate. The focus on Foreign Affairs from Lynn University in boca raton, florida. Good evening from the campus of Lynn University here in boca raton, florida. This is the fourth and last debate of the 2012 campaign brought to you by the commission on president ial debates. This one is on Foreign Policy. Im Bob Schieffer of cbs news. The questions are mine, and i have not shared them with the candidates or their aides. The audience has taken a vow of silence. No applause, no reaction of any kind except right now when we welcome president barack obama and governor mitt romney. [ applause ] good to see you again. [ cheers and applause ] gentlemen, your campaigns have agreed to certain rules and they are simple. Theyve asked me to divide the evening into segments, ill pose a question at the beginning of each segment, you will each have two minutes to respond and then we will have a general discussion until we move to the next segment. Tonights debate as both of you know comes on the 50th anniversary of the night that president kennedy tol the world that the soviet union had installed Nuclear Missiles in cuba, perhaps the closest weve ever come to nuclear war and it is a sobering reminder that every prident faces at some point an unexpected threat to our National Security from abroad. So lets begin. The first segment is the challenge of a changing middle east and the new face of terrorism. Im going to put this into two segments so youll have two topic questions within this one segment on the subject. The first question and it concerns libya, the controversy over what happened there continues four americans dead including an american ambassador, questions remain. What happened . What caused it . Was it spontaneous . Was it an intelligence failure . Was it a policy failure . Was there an attempt to mislead people about what really happened . Governor romney, you said this was an example of an american policy in the middle east that is unraveling before our very eyes. Id like to hear each of you give your thoughts on that. Governor romney, you won the toss, you go first. Thank you, bob, and thank you for agreeing to moderate this debate this evening. Thank you to Lynn University for welcoming us here and mr. President , its good to be with you again. We were together at a humanous event earlier and its nice to maybe be funny this time not on purpose. Well see what happens. This is obviously an area of great concern to the entire world and to america in particular, which is to see a complete change in the structure and the environment in the middle east. With the arab spring came a great deal of hope that there would be a change towards more moderation, an opportunity for greater participation on the part of women and public life and in Economic Life in the middle east, but instead weve seen in nation after nation a number of disturbing events. Of course, we see in syria 30,000 civilians being killed by the military there. We see in libya an attack apparently by i think we now know by terrorists of some kind against our people there, four people dead, our hearts and minds go to them. Mali has been taken over, the northern part by al qaedatype individuals. We have in egypt a Muslim Brotherhood president and so what were seeing can a pretty dramatic reversal and the kind of hopes we had for that region, of course, the greatest threat of all is iran, four years closer to a Nuclear Weapon, and were going to have to recognize that we have to do as the president has done,en congratulate him on taking out Osama Bin Laden and going after the leadership in al qaeda but we cant kill our way out of the mess. We have to put in place a very comprehensive and robust strategy to help the world of islam and other parts of the world reject this radical violent extremism, which its certainly not in the run, its certainly not hiding. This is a group that is now involved in 10 or 12 countries, and it presents an enormous threat 20 our friends, to the world, to america, longterm, and we must have a comprehensive strategy to help reject this kind of extremism. Mr. President. Well, my first job as commander in chief, bob, is to keep the American People safe, and thats what weve done over the last four years. We ended the war in iraq. Refocused our attention on those who killed us on 9 11 and as a consequence al qaedas core leadership has been decimatdeci. Were able to transition out of afghanistan in a responsible way making sure that afghans take responsibility for their own security, and that allows us also to rebuild alliances and make friends around the world to combat future threats. Now, with respect to libya, as i indicated in the last debate, when we received that phone call, i immediately made sure that, number one, we did everything we could to secure those americans who were still in harms way. Number two, that we would investigate exactly what happened, and, number three, most importantly, that we would go after those who killed americans and we would bring them to justice, and thats exactly what were going to do but i think its important to step back and think about what happened in libya. Now, keep in mind that i and americans took leadership in organizing an International Coalition that made sure that we were able to without putting troops on the ground at the cost of less than what we spent in two weeks in iraq liberate a country that had been under the yoke of dictatorship for 40 years and got rid of a despot who killed americas and as a consequence this tragedy you had tens of thousands of libyans after the events in benghazi marching and saying, america is our friend. We stand with them. Now, tha represents the opportunity we have to take advantage of, and, you know, governor romney, im glad that you agreed that we have been successful in going after al qaeda. But i have to tell you that, you know, your strategy previously has been one that has been all over the map and is not designed to keep americans safe or to build on the opportunities that exist in the middle east. Well, my strategy is pretty straightforward, which is to go after the bad guys, to make sure we do our very best to interrupt them, to kill them, to take them out of the picture, but my strategy is broader than that. Thats important, of course, but the key that were going to have to pursue is a pathway to get the muslim world to be able to reject extremism on its own. We dont want another iraq. We dont want another afghanistan. Thats not the right course for us. The right course for us is to make sure we go after the people who are leaders of these various antiamerican groups and these jihadists but also help the muslim world. How do we do that . The arab scholars came together to see how we could help the world reject these terrorists and the answer they came up with this is, one more economic development. Key our foreign aid, our direct Foreign Investment and that of our friends, we should coordinate it to make sure we push back and give them more economic development. Number two, better education. Number three, gender equality. Number four, the rule of law. We have to help these nations create civil societies. But whats been happening over the last couple of years is as we watch this tumult in the middle east, this rising tide of chaos occur, you see al qaeda rushing in. You see other jihadist groups rushing in and there throughout many nations in the middle east. Its wonderful that libya seems to be making some progress despite this terrible tragedy, but next door, of course, we have egypt, libya 6 million popution. Egypt 80 million population. We want to make sure we see progress with mali having north mali taken over by al qaeda, with syria having assad continuing to assassinate or kill, murder his own people. This is a region in tumult and, of course, iran, on the path to a Nuclear Weapon. Weve got real problems. But lets give the president a chance. Governor romney, im glad that you recognize that al qaeda is a threat. Because a few months ago when you were asked whats the biggest geopolitical threat facing america, you said russia, not al qaeda. You said russia. The 1980s are calling for their Foreign Policy back because the cold war has been over for 20 years, but, governor, when it comes to our Foreign Policy, you seem to want to import the policies of the 1980s just like the social policies of the 1950s and the economic policies of the 1920s. You say that youre not interested in duplicating what happened in iraq, but just a few weeks ago, you said you think we should have more troops in iraq right now, and the challenge we have, i know you havent been in a position to actually execute Foreign Policy, but every time youve offered an opinion, youve been wrong. You said we should have gone into iraq despite the fact that there were no weapons of mass destruction. You said that we should still have troops in iraq to this day. You indicated that we shouldnt be passing Nuclear Treaties with russia defespite the fact that senators, democrats and republicans, voted for it. Youve said that first we should not have a time line in afghanistan then you said we should. Now you said maybe or it depends which means not only were you wrong but youre also confusing and sending messages to our troops and allies. So what we need to do with respect to the middle east is strong steady leadership, not wrong and reckless leadership that is all over the map and, unfortunately, thats the kind of opinions that youve offered throughout the campaign and it is not a recipe for american strength or keeping america safe im going to add a couple of minutes to give you a chance to respond. Well, of course, i dont concur with what the president said about my own record and the things that ive said. They dont happen to be accurate, but i can say this, that were talking about the middle east and how to help them reject the kind of terrorism were seeing and the rising tide of tumult and confusion, and attacking me is not an agenda. Attacking me is not talking about how well deal with the challenges that exist in the middle east and take advantage much the opportunity there and stem the tide of this violence. But ill respond to a couple of things you mentioned. First of all, russia, i indicated, is a geopolitical foe. Number one excuse me, its a geopolitical foe and i said in the same paragraph and i said iran is the greatest National Security threat we face. Russia does continue to battle us in the u. N. Time and time again. I have clear eyes on this. Im not going to wear rose colored glasses when it comes to russia or mr. Putin and i wont say to him ill give you more flexibility after the election. After the election hell get more backbone. With regard to iraq you and i agreed there should have been a status of forces agreement. I didnt. You didnt . What i would not have done is let 10,000 troops in iraq that would tie us down, that certainly would not help us in the middle east. Im sorry. You actually there was an effort on the part of the president to have a status of forces agreement and i concurred in that and said we should have some number of troops that stayed on. That was something i concurred with governor romney that was my posture as well. You thought it should have been 5,000 troops. I thought it should have been more. The aegis is we got no troops what so jeff. A few weeks ago you indicated we should still have troops in iraq. No, i didnt. I indicated i indicated that you failed to put in place a status of forces agreement at the end of the conflict that existed. Governor romney, heres one thing heres one thing ive learned as commander in chief. Youve got to be clear, both to our allies and our enemies about where you stand and what you mean. Now, you just gave a speech a few weeks ago in which you said we should still have troops in iraq. That is not a recipe for making sure that we are taking advantage of the opportunities and meeting the challenges of the middle east. Now, it is absolutely true that we cannot just meet these challenges militarily and so what ive done throughout my presidency and will continue to do is, number one, make sure that these countries are supporting our counterterrorism efforts. Number two, make sure that they are standing by our interests in Israel Security because it is a true friend and our greatest ally in the region. Number three, we do have to make sure were protecting religidge joust minorities and women because half the population is developing. Number four, we do have to develop their economic their economic capabilities but, number five, the other thing we have to do is recognize that we cant continue to do nationbuilding in these regions, part of American Leadership is making sure were doing nation building here at home. That will help us maintain the kind of American Leadership that we need. Let me interject the second topic question in this segment about the middle east and so on and that is, you both mentioned eluded to this and this is syria. The war in syria has spilled over into lebanon. We have, what, more than 100 people that were killed there in a bomb. There were demonstrations there, eight people dead. Mr. President , its been more than a year since you saw you told assad he had to go, since 30,000 syrians have died. Weve had 300,000 refugees. The war goes on. Hes still there. Should we reassess our policy and see if we can find a better way to influence events there, or is that a possibility . You go first, sir. What weve done is organize the International Community saying assad has to go, weve mobilized sanctions against that government, we have made sure that they are isolated. We have provided humanitarian assistance and we are helping the opposition organize and were particularly interested in making sure were mobilizing the moderate forces inside of syria. But ultimately, syrians will have to determine their own future and so everything were doing, were doing in consultation with our partners in the region including israel which obviously has a huge interest in seeing what happens in syria. Coordinating with turkey and other countries in the region that have a great interest in this. Now, what were seeing taking place in syria is heartbreaking and thats why we are going to do everything we can to make sure we are helping the opposition, but we also have to recognize that, you know, for us to get more entangled militarily in syria is a serious step and we have to do so making absolutely certain that we know who we are helping, that were not putting arms in the hands of folks who eventually could turn them against us or our allies in the region. And i am confident that assads days are numbered. But what we cant do is to simply suggest that as governor romney at times has suggested that giving heavy weapons, for example, to the Syrian Opposition is a simple proposition that would lead us to be safer over the long term. Governor romney . Well, lets step back and talk about whats happening in syria and how important it is. First of all, 30,000 people being killed by their government is a humanitarian disaster. Secondly, syria is an opportunity for us because syria plays an Important Role in the middle east, particularly right now. Syria is irans only ally in the arab world. Its their route to the sea. Its the route for them to arm hezbollah in lebanon which threatens, of course, our ally israel, so seeing syria remove askad is a very high priority for us. Number two, seeing a replacement government being responsible people is critical for us. And, finally, we dont want to have military involvement there. We dont want to get drawn into a military conflict so the right course for us can working through our partners and with our own resources to identify responsible parties within syria, organize them, bring them together in a form of if not government, a form of counsel that can take the lead in syria and then make sure they have the arms necessary to defend themselves. We do need to make sure that they dont have airports that get into the wrong hands, those arms could be used to hurt us down the road. We need to make sure, as well, we coordinate this effort with our allies and particularly with israel. But the saudis and the qatari and the turks are all concerned about this. Theyre willing to work with us. We need to have a very effective leadership effort in syria, making sure that the insurgents there are armed and the insurgents that bebecome armed e people who will be the responsible parties. Recognize i believe that assad must go. I believe he will go, but i believe we want to make sure that we have the relationships of friendship with the people to take his place such that in the years to come we see syria as a friend and syria as a responsible party in the middle east. This is a critical opportunity for america and what im afraid of, weve watched over the past year or so, first, the president saying well let the u. N. Deal with it and assad excuse me, kofi annan came in and said well try a ceasefire. That didnt work. Then look to the russians and say, see if you can do something. We should be playing the leadership role there, not on the ground but military by the leadership role. We are playing a leadership role. We organized the friends and mobilizing humanitarian support and support for the opposition and we are making sure that those we help are those who will be friends of ours in the long term and friends of the allies. But going back to libya because this is an example of how we make choices. When we went into libya and were able to immediat