Giuliani Calls for Military Surge in Afghanistan

ABC News’ Jan Simmonds reports:  Rudy Giuliani called for an immediate surge of troops in Afghanistan during a policy speech today in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire.

While outlining his plan to win the War on Terror, called for the United States to "double the number of our troops, who are American led combat troops in Afghanistan."

"I believe acting now will help us in the effort to find Bin Laden," said Giuliani.  "It will help us in the effort to make sure that we solidify the gains we made in 2001 and 2002 in routing Al Qaeda and routing the Taliban.  And I believe it will act as a way in assisting in stabilizing the entire rejoin."

Giuliani spoke in his most direct terms during this campaign about the threat Osama Bin Laden presents to the United States, quoting him on multiple occasions.

"Osama Bin Laden is just the latest in a long line, or at least a line, of dictators, terrorists, bullies, people in that category who somehow hear all this division we have and think that it is a sign of weakness," the former New York City Mayor said.  "He believes our country is prone to quote ‘panic and retreat’, close quote.  That we are, quote, ‘built on a weak and hollow foundation’, close quote."

Giuliani though discounted Bin Laden’s beliefs saying, "In fact you and I that know that America is stronger, much stronger, because of our ability to disagree with each other in a peaceful way and in a decent way, which is a hallmark of democracy.  And that we standup to tyrants and dictatators and terrorists and bullies."

Drawing a rise from the crowd Giuliani noted that Bin Laden must be caught and that the will of the people of the United States should not be discounted noting that "America is the land of the free, because we are home of the brave."

The speech, presented at the World War II themed E. Stanley Wright Museum, also outlined the four main components a Giuliani presidency would take to win, what he likes to refer to as, "the terrorists’ war on us."

"Its going to require expanding our military, refocusing our intelligence, improving even more our homeland security and winning the war of ideas against these radicals," he said. 

For increasing the military, Giuliani called for adding ten combat-ready brigades to the army, attaining "next generation fighters, bombers and refueling tankers" for the air force and raising the number of Marines to at least 200,000 and the number of ships in Navy to at least 300. The former mayor did not detail how he would attain these new troop numbers in spite of the military’s curent struggles to reach recruiting targets.

While skipping campaigning in Iowa in these remaining hours before the caucus, it is clear the campaign hopes this renewed message on the War on Terror will keep their candidate’s name in the conversation and in voters’ minds.