AUSTIN, Texas -- Gov. Rick Perry is blaming the Obama administration for the death of a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans in an attack in the Libyan city of Benghazi.

In a harshly worded statement Wednesday, Perry blasted the president for condemning the attacks yet acknowledging "our attackers' supposed justification."

He said that conveys "an impotent foreign policy that fostered this crisis in the first place."

Perry said recent U.S. policy in Libya hasn't secured the country and allowed "rockets and artillery to be scattered to the terrorist winds." He also blamed Tuesday's burning of the U.S. flag at the embassy in Cairo on what he called Obama's "shameful lack of leadership in Egypt."

He added: "it is no wonder our enemies in the region are emboldened and our allies are afraid."