RIGHT SPEAK: Marco Rubio Touts a Foreign Policy with Expansive U.S. Role

GOP Sen. Marco Rubio says the U.S. should use military force to defend American economic interests, part of a foreign policy he put forward Wednesday that figures to be central to his presidential campaign.

Rubio, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations and Intelligence committees, laid out his foreign policy "doctrine," as he described it, in an address to the Council on Foreign Relations.

In a Republican presidential field that includes the libertarian-leaning Sen. Rand Paul and his reluctance to engage U.S. troops overseas, Rubio pitched a foreign policy that called for the U.S. to aggressively defend its economic interests — including when there is a "disruption of economic activity'' caused by one country invading another — as well as its ideological values.

The Florida senator called for more defense spending, protection of U.S. business activity overseas and "moral clarity regarding America's core values,'' including protection of women and religious minorities in other countries.

Asked whether he would have opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq if he had known that the intelligence was faulty as was subsequently revealed, Rubio said he would have opposed the invasion and President George W. Bush would have as well.

"But let's also be fair about the context," Rubio said. "Yes, there was intelligence that was faulty, but there was also a history with Iraq'' of using chemical and biological weapons.