Disagreeing with his party leaders who of late have been very critical of US President Barack Obama, the Louisiana Governor and Republican rising star Bobby Jindal has said that the Obama Administration needs to be given a chance.
'Let us give the new administration a chance. Let's not question their intentions, but let us have a real debate on their policies,' Jindal, an Indian American, told the ABC news in an interview.
When asked about recent rhetoric from top Republican leaders including the former Vice President, Dick Cheney, who in a CNN interview had alleged that Obama is making US unsafe, Jindal said: 'Democrat or Republican, we should all agree that our current President and our former President would obviously want to do everything they could to keep us safe. I don't think we should question President Obama's patriotism or his intentions.'
Jindal said it's fine to have an honest disagreement on the policies that both administrations would choose to try to keep the US safe.
'I am quite honestly pleasantly surprised to see that President Obama has shown more flexibility when it comes to Iraq than maybe some of the campaign rhetoric suggested,' Jindal said, appreciating some the foreign policy initiatives of Obama.
'We are hearing him say that, for example -- at least if not him, his senior officials are saying we'll listen to commanders on the ground. Hearing more flexibility, if they decide they need more troops beyond the deadlines that they set up in the campaign, they are willing to listen to that and maybe adjust their plans,' he said.
'That is the kind of pragmatism -- listening to the commanders on the ground, I think is very important,' he added.
However, Jindal objected to Obama's recent overseas statement that tended to be apologetic and critical of the former presidents.
'The President just came back from an extended trip overseas. At some point we need to stop going overseas and apologising, criticising our predecessors,' he said.
Observing that Obama is well received in foreign countries, Jindal said he would like to see more substantive changes from US allies. 'I would have liked to have seen NATO put more troops in Afghanistan. I would have liked to have seen more consensus on the economic challenges we are facing internationally,' he said.
'So I hope we are moving beyond the campaign into more substantive policies. At the end of the day, I don't think we should be questioning either this or previous administration's intentions, but I think it's fair to have a debate on the policies,' Jindal said.
