I supported Libertarian candidates for a few years until I heard Harry Brown, a previous Libertarian candidate, rant how the problems in the Middle East and the world all originated with global interference of the US, particularly in its support for Israel. The evils and militancy of the numerous other dictators in the world seem to matter for naught.

While the Libertarian party itself is certainly not anti Semitic, it is easy to see why so many anti Semites and anti Zionists are attracted to that party.

While I support the idea of a greatly reduced government presence in both our personal and economic life, the Libertarians lose me with their isolationist foreign policy.

One of our greatest political dilemmas is to find our proper place in world affairs; using our power for security and not imperialism. The fact that we have fought and died to give other countries their independence is a relative new and rare concept in world history.

Noted Jean-Francois Revel:

“Democracy tends to ignore, even deny, threats to its existence because it loathes doing what is necessary to counter them. It awakens only when the danger becomes deadly, imminent, evident. By then, either there is too little time for it to spare itself, or the price of survival has become crushingly high.”

Even Thomas Jefferson came to realize that our security was not limited to our immediate borders. The original Articles of Confederation did not allow for a national navy or army. When the pirates off north Africa (Muslim terrorists) captured and enslaved our merchant seamen conducting trade in the Mediterranean, we had no military to confront it. In fact our citizens feared that there was nothing to stop these pirates from sailing to our shores and enslaving our citizens. (Ironic isn’t it?)

One of the reasons for the constitutional convention was to be able to form a navy to protect our interests abroad. We eventually formed our navy attacked the pirates strongholds and stopped the piracy.

The Libertarians (and their Republican representative) should learn the lessons of Jefferson.

HKO

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