Fiorina, the<\/span> former CEO of Hewlett Packard, offered the most specificity specifics <\/span>on those plans: establishing 50 Army brigades, 36 Marine Corps battalions, up to 350 naval ships and sending send<\/span> several thousand more troops into Germany, insisting that doing so would create “the strongest military on the face of the planet.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bush, the former Florida governor whose father and brother have served as president, said he’d stop “the craziness of the sequester” to ensure more money for military priorities, arguing that recent cutbacks have damaged the United States’ reputation worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “We need to send a signal to the world,” he argued. “If we’re going to lead the world, we need the strongest military possible.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Florida Sen. Marco Rubio promised to end Obama\u2019s policies of “eviscerating the military.” Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker accused charged<\/span> Obama with<\/span>\u00a0of ignoring his military experts and unnecessarily restricting troops in Iraq and Afghanistan for political reasons<\/span>, leaving them in battlefield<\/span> peril on the battlefield.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Several blasted the White House\u2019s all-but-finalized nuclear monitoring deal with Iran, with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz calling it a “catastrophic” mistake. But both Bush and\u00a0Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Bush both <\/span>criticized Cruz’s\u00a0his<\/span> pledge to “tear up the agreement on day one,” saying that\u2019s not a real strategy for stabilizing how to stabilize <\/span>the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n On Iraq and Syria, most of the GOP hopefuls advocated more U.S. intervention to defeat Islamic State\u00a0militants advancing in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But none went as far as South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who at a debate earlier in the day repeated his belief the U.S. military should deploy at least 10,000 troops to the fight \u2014 up dramatically up<\/span> from the 3,500 there now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “If we don’t destroy (ISIS) soon, they are coming here,” he said. “If you’re not ready to do these things you’re not ready to be commander in\u00a0chief.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Republican presidential candidates business mogul Donald Trump, left, and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Photo Credit: Chris Carlson\/AP<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul advocated a more isolationist policy, saying “the first war in Iraq was a mistake, and I’m not sending our sons and daughters back to Iraq.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump, a business mogul and the race’s current frontrunner in the race now<\/span>, dismissed criticism from his opponents over his lack of foreign policy experience, and repeated his pledge to that he\u2019ll <\/span>be fully informed on all national security threats by the time his inauguration arrives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n He suggested letting Syria and the Islamic State group\u00a0“fight each other, [and then] pick up the remnants.” Citing his negotiating skills, Trump\u00a0insisted that Russia, China and Iran would all<\/span> respect America more with him as commander in\u00a0chief, because of his negotiating skills<\/span>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “We build our military, we take care of our vets, we get rid of Obamacare, and we have a great life altogether,” he said, referring to the president’s divisive health care policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Only two candidates \u2014 Trump and Fiorina \u2014 mentioned military veterans during the three-hour debate, neither in response to a direct question. In the first GOP debate, Rubio was the only candidate to say the word “veteran” on stage at any point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Democratic presidential candidates\u00a0will have their first presidential debate Oct. 13, with Republicans scheduled for their third debate two weeks later.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The GOP hopefuls sparred over Iran, military budgets and intervention in Iraq in the early campaign event.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":94341,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":12,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3222,1824],"class_list":["post-56460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"DNNTTTIENJB37N3T4JR5MHP4FQ","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/2015\/09\/17\/gop-debate-draws-out-candidates-on-military-policy\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/635780323339134655-gop-2016-debate-weigjpg.jpg\")