The Conservative Party officially condemns U.S. involvement in Libya and calls on the Congress to immediately stop funding the Obama Administration’s military involvement in that civil war. NATO and U.S. actions have far exceeded the U.N. mandate to establish a “No Fly Zone” and protect civilians.
While Moammar Gadhafi is certainly a cruel and corrupt tyrant, the U.S. has been supportive of Libya during the past 10 years. The Congressional Research Service reported the United States has: lifted its economic embargo against Libya in 2004; restored full diplomatic relations in 2006 after Gadhafi agreed to dismantle his nuclear program; removed Libya from the list of State Sponsored Terrorist Countries in 2006; and agreed to a financial settlement in 2008 with Gadhafi for the airplane bombing in Lockerbie, Scotland. Without U.S. objection, Libya became a member of the U.N. Human Rights Council and president Obama actually toasted Gadhafi at the G-8 Summit in 2009. In addition, Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham led a delegation to Tripoli that same year to praise Gadhafi and discuss selling, of all things, military equipment to Libya because Gadhafi was one of America’s reliable allies in the War on Terror. Numerous American and European contractors have been conducting Billions in commerce with Libya for years with U.S. blessing. Since 2009 Obama’s annual budgets included $5M in foreign aid to Libya. Bottom Line: Obama can’t use anything Gadhafi did prior to 2011 as an excuse to attack him now since the U.S. ignored all his transgressions and supported his regime.
Notwithstanding all those inconvenient facts, Obama and NATO are now attacking Gadhafi because….he threatened to destroy the armed rebels who were trying to forcibly remove and kill him. What’s new? While the reasons for removing Gadhafi are valid, Obama and NATO have turned a blind eye to Yemen, Iran and the Ivory Coast. It’s been reported that more than 400 innocent civilians have been killed in Syria yet Obama has not even recalled our Ambassador. That is not a clear, honorable and coherent Mid East foreign policy by any standard.
Killing innocent civilians under any circumstances must be condemned. But civilians are not so “innocent” when they use automatic weapons against the police, even a tyrant’s police. An innocent civilian instantly becomes an armed combatant (rebel) when he grabs a rifle and shoots at police or soldiers. What should Gadhafi’s police have done, just stood there and get shot or bludgeoned by an angry mob? Is Gadhafi’s army or his supporters (many of whom are innocent civilians, too) allowed to defend themselves when surrounded and attacked by rebel forces? Should they just drop their weapons, surrender and get arrested or worse? Granted, Gadhafi is a typical Mid-East tyrant who should be deposed but some common sense is in order. The U.S. should let Libyans conduct Libyan affairs.
America’s duplicitous and contradictory Libyan foreign policy does not justify this expensive, unpopular military misstep. That’s especially true when taken in the context of U.S/Libyan relations outlined above. We must also consider candidate Obama’s repeated proclamations that no U.S. president should go to war unless there was an imminent threat to America and not until he first consults Congress. Obama satisfied none of those conditions before attacking. In addition, Obama and NATO are far exceeding the U.N. Mandate to protect innocent civilians when they started using armed drones against Libyan forces and tried to assassinate Gadhafi.
Despite having a crushing $14 Trillion national debt, a $1.5 Trillion annual budget deficit and a dire unemployment rate, Obama has committed America to yet another war in the Muslim world when our military and national budget are already stretched to the limit.
The Conservative Party calls on Congress to immediately defund this unnecessary war and concentrate on creating jobs in America.
The Conservative Party (www.conservativepartyusa.com) will rectify the consistent failures of the current two-party system. CP-USA is America’s True “Second Party” and represents the next step in the evolution of the Tea Party.
H. M. Hervey
Chairman, CP-USA
hmhervey@cp-usa.org
