LP's Gary Johnson: Why Obama and Romney are Both Wrong About Libya, Egypt, Afghanistan
Writing at the Huffington Post, Libertarian Party presidential candidate Gary Johnson explains
Foreign policy is supposed to make us safer, not get Americans killed and bankrupt us. Yet, even as we mourn the loss of four Americans in Libya and watch the Middle East ignite with anti-American fervor, our leaders don't get it….
Stop trying to manipulate and manage history on the other side of the globe and then being shocked when things don't turn out the way we wanted. As far as what we do right now in response to the tragic events of this week, it's actually pretty simple. Get our folks out of places they don't need to be -- and out of harm's way -- and cut off every dime of U.S. tax dollars we are sending to clearly ungrateful regimes….
We're broke. We are borrowing or printing 43 cents of every one of the more than $4 billion a year we are sending to Pakistan, Libya and Egypt. And all those missiles we launched, and the war in Afghanistan are likewise being put on the national credit card. Why are we building roads, bridges, hospitals and schools half a world away on borrowed money? Don't we have those same needs here at home?
Johnson is a non-interventionist but not an isolationist. He believes in free trade, open borders, and a strong defense ("the most basic of the federal government's responsibilities"), but not in what we've experienced over the past dozen years. Which is exactly why both major parties rush to write off his views as naive, uninformed, and unworkable - even as they accord with most Americans' views. (For a contrary take on Johnson's foreign policy positions, read this Daily Caller piece based on an April 2012 meeting with the candidate.)
Reason TV's most recent interview with the former two-term governor of New Mexico was conducted at Freedom Fest in Las Vegas in July. Take a look (5 mins):
