RENO, Nev. (MCT) — Preparing for his first foreign travel as the unofficial Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney used a sendoff speech before military veterans Tuesday to deliver a scathing indictment of President Barack Obama’s defense and foreign policies.

Tying the tepid economy at home to weakness abroad, Romney asserted that Obama’s “policies have made it harder to recover from the deepest recession in 70 years, exposed the military to cuts that no one can justify (and) compromised our national-security secrets.”