Iowa City, October 23 (RHC)-- Right-wing Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley has called for the creation of a “Department of Offense” instead of "Defense" to enable the U.S. to instill fear in their foreign enemies and better enforce Washington’s belligerent foreign policy.

The southern Indian-American university professor, who was addressing a campaign event in Iowa’s Cedar Rapids on Friday, claimed a stronger military can restore U.S. credibility.  “We’ve got to be smart, and we’ve got to be ready,” Haley said.  “I’m tired of talking about a ‘department of defense’. I want a ‘department of offense’.  Every enemy needs to fear us.”

Haley claimed Biden’s botched withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan in 2021 and the takeover by the Taliban, in addition to his administration’s recent prisoner-swap deal with Iran, had emboldened America’s enemies.

She also claimed that a strong US government backed by a formidable military could have prevented Israel’s war on Gaza, as well as the Russia-Ukraine conflict.  She called on the US government to back the Israeli regime in its onslaught on Gaza by providing the Zionist forces with “whatever they need whenever they need it.”

The hardliner Republican politician said that Washington’s objective must be to help the Israeli regime eradicate the Palestinian resistance movement.  The goal is to “eliminate Hamas, not weaken them,” she insisted.   She also called for stopping funding to colleges where its students and/or employees held pro-Palestinian rallies.   

Nikki Haley, a hawkish U.S. diplomat and politician, is poised to formally launch her 2024 presidential bid on February 15, becoming the first Republican to join the race.  Haley’s call for a more aggressive military comes as the US annual military budget is more than $830 billion, which exceeds the world’s next nine largest defense budgets combined.

Also, the U.S. military runs some 750 bases in 80 countries, and it has a long history of regime-change programs and military interventions in countries around the world.

Media sources note it is interesting that Nikki Haley owns as much as $250,000 in Boeing stock as of a financial disclosure filing in May.