Politics

Dennis Kucinich: Interventionism Led to Broader Security Failure in Libya

Libya's got more terrorists now than it did before the U.S.-backed intervention, the congressman pointed out

|

Departing Congressman Dennis Kucinich said at today's hearing on security failures in Benghazi that rather than engaging in partisanship Congress ought to look at its role in failing to curb American interventionism as what led to the terrorist attack in Benghazi on 9/11, saying extremists exist and are more powerful in Libya because the U.S. "spurred a civil war" there, "absent constitutional authority, might I add."

Kucinich blamed "decades of intervention" on the rise of extremists in the region and asked why no lessons from Iraq were drawn on Libya.

"Interventions do not make us safer," Kucinich said, "they are themselves a threat to America," before asking how much more Al-Qaeda there is in Libya now than before the U.S. intervention (the only answer he got was that they have a bigger presence in Libya than the U.S. does, from Lt. Col. Andrew Wood). He also asked how many surface-to-air missiles were still missing since the U.S. intervention. Between 10 and 20,000, according to one of the witnesses.