Gary Johnson responds to Libya murders

LP Nominee Governor Gary Johnson has responded to the killings of four Americans, including the Ambassador in the Libyan attack on the US Embassy in Benghazi. Washington Times reports:

Former New Mexico governor and presidential candidate Gary Johnson added his voice to the growing outrage over the deaths of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others in the Benghazi embassy raid in Libya.

“It is tragic when Americans serving their country are murdered, and we both mourn their loss and honor their service,” the Libertarian presidential candidate announced in a press release. “Part of honoring that service is to ask the obvious question: What U.S. interest is being served by putting our people – and our money – in places where U.S. personnel can be killed by extremists over a video? We launched millions of dollars worth of missiles to bring down Gaddafi, and this is what we get.”

Johnson went on to assert “Protecting America with a strong national defense and a rational foreign policy is our leaders’ most basic responsibility. But let us not confuse national security with senseless intervention where our interests are clearly not being served.”

Gary Johnson’s statement raises a profound point that an increasing number of frustrated Americans agree with. In 2011, bipartisan calls for intervention in Libya were both manic and deafening in spite of concerns that assisting the rebel uprising against Qaddafi could have disastrous implications for the stability of Northern Africa.

Obama’s implementation of Operation: Odyssey Dawn purely on the basis of U.N. Resolution 1973 was erroneously compared and praised by both conservative and liberal voices alike to Ronald Reagan’s Operation: El Dorado Canyon (1986). In reality, the Nixon, Carter and Reagan Administrations opposed Qaddafi’s regime for reasons vastly different and more legitimate than the Obama Administration.

Contrary to popular belief, neither Carter nor Reagan opposed Qaddafi for the internal affairs of his country. The real reason American forces were at odds with the Libyan regime was that just four years after Colonel Qaddafi’s coup, the Libyan leader declared his territorial waters stretched out nearly 100 kilometers from his shore in defiance of traditional international law which recognized a 19 kilometer maritime border. …

Delaware Libertarian has mentioned an increasing incidence of reporting in the press of the LP campaign. It was mentioned that there has even been an increasing coverage of statements by LP VP Nominee, Judge Jin Gray which is highly unusual in the case of a third party. The Washington Times has not only published Johnson’s press release, but gone on with an extensive article covering Libya policy.

More kudos to them.