Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry delivered a powerful and soulful speech on Saturday at the South Carolina Freedom Summit, where he emphasized the critical need for experienced Republican leadership to turn America around from the slump it has fallen into over the past few years, specifically with regard to foreign policy.

“A recovery of epic proportion needs to be on the table for us,” Perry said, emulating a commander-in-chief. “And when we elect a Republican president in 2016, America will do better.”

Perry, 65, has yet to announce whether he will run for president in 2016. Growing up in Paint Creek, Texas, Perry said his family didn’t have a lot of money. In fact, he described how his mom would sew clothing for him up until he enrolled in college and mentioned that they didn’t even have indoor plumbing for many years.

We never thought we were poor though. Because the fact is we were rich. We were very rich in values. We were taught the value in hard work, the importance of family. I was taught it was my duty to protect freedom for the next generation.

He volunteered to serve in the Air Force and relayed how his profound love and appreciation for the freedoms America affords its citizens amplified after he spent time in Asia and countries in the Middle East like Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Turkey — nations whose citizens suffer from human rights abuses.

“Common sense,” Perry exclaimed would be the key to restoring America’s place internationally. He called out President Barack Obama’s “gross incompetence” and “naive ideological ignorance,” with regard to his inability to see the true evil that exists in this world and defeat it.

“We watched the president end a war without a plan to keep the peace.”

Obama’s premature troop withdrawal from Iraq amplified the strength of the Islamic State (ISIS, ISIL) throughout the region. Terrorists acting on behalf of the group are on U.S. soil in the form of now-activated sleeper cells.

You’ve got this delusional thinking of the left which is epitomized by our president where criminals obey the gun laws; where state-sponsors of terrorism will put down their arms to obey a nuclear agreement; where radical groups like ISIS are not religious in nature.

With regard to Iran, Perry said the deal as it now stands “doesn’t limit Iranian nuclear ambitions; it legitimizes it.”

Perry said 2016 will be a “show me, not tell me election” where voters will look at what’s tangibly been achieved. As the Lone Star State’s longest-serving Governor, Perry had guided Texas through several crises which he said provides him with a solid foundation as to the skill sets required to run a nation that faces threats on a daily basis.

“There is nothing wrong with America today that cannot be fixed with new leadership. I happen to believe that America’s best days are in front of us. Let’s let America be America again.”

Follow Adelle Nazarian on Twitter @AdelleNaz