Perry: Obama made ‘big mistake’ by disclosing troop withdrawal timetables

Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) said Saturday that President Obama shouldn’t have disclosed when he planned to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.
 
The 2012 Republican presidential candidate was on the campaign trail in South Carolina Saturday for fundraisers, endorsements and to meet with voters. Perry also criticized Obama for his proposed timeline of troop withdrawals in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
 

“We need to be thoughtful before we ever go into an area that America's interests are truly being impacted, and then we need to start having a thoughtful conversation with those commanders in the field about how to be bringing our young men and women back,” Perry said, according to the Associated Press. “Look, I think the president made a huge mistake by signaling the enemy that we're going to leave at a particular time. That's bad public policy, but more importantly it put our kids in harm's way.”
 
Perry also addressed immigration reform Saturday while in South Carolina. Disagreeing with Arizona’s new anti-illegal immigration law, the Texas governor said the question on how to best handle immigration should be left to the states, not to Congress.
 

“I didn't want to make our law enforcement officers federal immigration officers. So state-by-state ought to be the way to do that, not by the federal government making one size fits all,” Perry said.
 
Perry’s presidential campaign picked up momentum Saturday securing two key endorsements in the Palmetto State. Former South Carolina state Rep. David Wilkins, a former U.S. Ambassador to Canada who fundraised for former President George W. Bush's campaigns, and South Carolina Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler have gotten behind the Texas governor.

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