The Hill News

President Obama's foreign policy should still be fair game for debate despite his success in killing Osama bin Laden, likely GOP presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty said Tuesday.

Asked after an appearance in Ames, Iowa, if it will be difficult to criticize the president in the aftermath of bin Laden's killing, Pawlenty said that the United States's "national defense posture" is still subject for debate.

{mosads}"President Obama should be congratulated for his commitment and decision-making in the capture of bin Laden,” Pawlenty told the Des Moines Register. "But that’s not the full scope of our foreign policy or our national defense posture and there will still be a robust debate about what he has done so far and what he will do in the future."

Pawlenty's comments are some of the most direct from a potential Republican presidential candidate about the campaign landscape following bin Laden's slaying.

Many political observers have said that the economy and jobs will continue to dominate the campaign despite the news of the al Qaeda leader's killing. But Pawlenty, the former governor of Minnesota, warned that foreign policy will continue to be up for debate.

In the days following the operation, Obama has billed the event as a uniting moment for all Americans similar to the environment immediately following the 9/11 attacks that bin Laden helped to plot.

The first polls after the attack show Obama receiving a boost in approval. But pundits have debated as to how long Obama will receive heightened support and how much harder that might make it for a Republican to defeat Obama in 2012.

Pawlenty in the past has questioned Obama's strategy in Libya and! called on the president to remove the U.S. ambassador to Syria following the government's crackdown on protesters there. And on Tuesday, the former governor reiterated his opposition to defense cuts.   

"I don’t think given the threats we face and how fast they can materialize and how massive the damage can be to the United States, that we can afford to diminish our defense capabilities," he said.