'We mustn’t let ourselves be lulled into complacency,' he says in a speech. | John Shinkle/POLITICO Cantor blasts 'isolationist sentiment'

Make no mistake: Eric Cantor sides with the strong-on-defense wing of the GOP.

In a Presidents Day speech prepared for delivery at the Virginia Military Institute, the House majority leader offers a full-throated rebuke of the “isolationist sentiment” he says caused the United States to hesitate to enter World War II and again threatens to unleash global horrors.


The speech is aimed at President Barack Obama, accusing him of bungling just about every foreign policy challenge he has faced as commander in chief, from Syria’s civil war to the attempt to reset relations with Russia.

( Also on POLITICO: Cantor: Obama 'lost' abroad)

“America’s friends worry we have lost our way, that we have lost the will to live up to our values or stand up to aggressors,” Cantor says in the prepared remarks provided to reporters ahead of the speech Monday. “They see a divided, inward-looking America that is focused on its weaknesses rather than its strengths, and they know this is an America that invites challenges and emboldens adversaries.”

Cantor also directed a passing rebuke at libertarians in the GOP, who’ve gained ground in recent years amid a Republican backlash against the policies of former President George W. Bush that led to long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Many Americans, and politicians from both parties, want to believe the tide of war has receded,” Cantor says. “However, we mustn’t let ourselves be lulled into complacency again or forget the lessons of history.”

The Virginia Republican’s decision to counter the libertarian wing of his party on foreign policy is yet another example of Republican leaders being increasingly willing to stand up to tea party backers like Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.), who’ve pushed for reduced spending on defense.

( Also on POLITICO: GOP presses Obama on Medicare)

It also provides a window into the foreign policy rhetoric that can be expected of establishment Republicans running for president in 2016 as they seek to counter the policies of the president on one side and tea party-backed primary challengers on the other.

“American foreign policy should not be guided by hollow rhetoric, unwise or moveable timelines, and unenforced red lines,” Cantor says. “Instead, it should be driven by clear principles: Protect the homeland, defend our allies and advance freedom, democracy and human rights abroad, while maintaining a military superiority that cannot be matched.”

He urges Congress to “lay the groundwork now” for new sanctions against Iran if that nation violates a deal struck last year to freeze parts of its nuclear program. Given the opportunity, he says, “Iran’s leaders would make good on their call to wipe Israel off the map” — a reference to an infamous statement by the Islamic Republic’s former president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

“I can imagine few more destabilizing moments in world history than Iran on the threshold of being a nuclear power,” Cantor says. “Make no mistake: Iran is a brutal theocracy. Its leaders violently repress dissent at home and support conflict and chaos abroad.”

Cantor also says it was a mistake to withdraw all U.S. forces from Iraq and calls for some troops to remain in Afghanistan after this year, when U.S. combat operations there are set to come to an end.

“In Iraq today, Iran and Al Qaeda are ascendant, and violence has reached levels not seen since the peak of the insurgency,” Cantor says. “To allow the same thing to happen in Afghanistan would be to invite strategic defeat for the United States.”

He acknowledges his approach to foreign policy “cannot be done on the cheap” and says “we cannot continue to blindly reduce defense spending” — a reference to sequestration, the automatic spending cuts that have hit the Pentagon especially hard.

“Initially encouraged by the so-called pivot or rebalance to Asia, our Asian partners are rightfully worried that the rebalance means only that the region will receive a larger slice of a shrinking pie with respect to American attention, military presence and diplomacy,” Cantor says.

The White House had no comment Monday on any of Cantor’s remarks.

His speech comes at an odd time for defense hawks, who’ve seen their power wane in recent years. A number of longtime defense advocates in both parties have retired, died or been ousted in elections. But it also follows several long-sought victories for congressional defense advocates over the past few months, including December’s bipartisan budget deal that staves off sequestration for two years and the passage of an omnibus spending bill last month that provides some fiscal certainty for the Pentagon.

“America’s military strength … helped spread the promise of democracy to the oppressed, a message of hope to the destitute and the blessings of security to the weak,” Cantor says. “But today, that formula that has served this nation and the world so well is very much in doubt.”