President Obama rarely comments on criticisms from the Republican presidential candidates, but today he offered a feisty, blunt response to charges that he is engaged in a foreign policy of "appeasement."

"Ask Osama bin Laden and the 22 out of 30 top al-Qaeda leaders who've been taken off the field whether I engage in appeasement," the president fired back at an impromptu news conference at the White House.

"Or whoever's left out there," he added. "Ask them about that."

Republicans vying for the GOP nomination slammed the president's foreign policy Wednesday, accusing him of turning a blind eye to radical groups in the Middle East and not being aggressive enough with Iran.

"I am very, very worried about our entire relationship with radical Islam because it's based on a pack of lies," Newt Gingrich said in a speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition. "It's based on a pack of self-deception. It's based on a State Department which has consistently engaged in appeasement."

Former Sen. Rick Santorum said at the same event, "It doesn't have an impact unless you do something, unless you have a policy that effectuates what you want to see happen. And this president, for every thug and hooligan, for every radical Islamist, he has had nothing but appeasement."

Mitt Romney said in his remarks, "President Obama has adopted an appeasement strategy.  Appeasement betrays a lack of faith in America, in American strength and in America's future."