The United States must stop its propensity for global military aggression and foreign entanglements and start focusing more on pressing domestic affairs, US Libertarian Party Executive Director Carla Howell told RT.
Howell said despite the behavior of the US government, Americans
do not want war in Syria, and US politicians should heed American
public opinion after a decade of conflict.
RT: I know your party is against military involvement in
Syria. What do you think of this proposal to remove chemical
weapons held by the Assad government?
Carla Howell: On one hand, it’s an improvement. It looks
like it weakens the chance that the US military will actually
strike Syria, which is good news. On the other hand it’s also
more entangling alliances where the US does not belong. The
Libertarian Party calls for a complete withdrawal from the region
and to stop engaging in these negotiations which are premised on
a threat issued by President Obama, drawing a so-called “red
line.” That’s completely inappropriate, unconstitutional and
out of line with what Americans want, which is we want our
leaders to focus on domestic issues and to reduce government,
both domestically and internationally, not increase it.
RT: But Obama’s reacting to a humanitarian crisis, use of
chemical weapons. So in the future, how should America act when
another country reportedly uses chemical weapons, or if they’re
used again in Syria? Just stand back and do nothing?
CH: We should allow citizens individually -- representing
themselves, not the country -- to do whatever they so choose, to
donate if they want, to go and help one side or another, they
should be free to do that. But no one representing the United
States should be getting involved in a country where we have no
interests and where we can expect, based on the results of our
past interventions, more bad things to come
RT: You say no interests, Obama said this was a security
interest to the US, the use of chemical weapons. This threatens
not just people of Syria but of other countries, too.
CH: Invading is a security risk and possibly more of one.
Look what’s happened. Our continual intervening in the Middle
East resulted in the 9/11 strikes--very possibly blowback from
our intervention. This makes us less secure.
RT: Do you expect Obama now to change course away from
calling for intervention in his televised address to the nation,
not a U-turn but certainly a change in sentiment?
CH: I’m not sure what he’s going to do. Certainly it’s
been embarrassing, him waffling the way he has been, that a
so-called off-the-cuff comment by his secretary of state would
change the course of events seems pretty amateurish. But more
importantly, we’re talking about lives at stake, we’re talking
about innocent people being killed if there are any kind of
strikes, and that is not acceptable, and he needs to man-up and
do the right thing, not the face-saving thing. And the right
thing is to recognize our intervention is a mistake, our threats
are a mistake and we need to take a neutral position on these
issues and mind our own affairs domestically, not intervene
abroad.
RT: Are your thoughts echoed amongst many other American
politicians? We know what some think in the House and indeed in
the Senate. How do you think the vote really will go among the
full spectrum of politicians there in the States?
CH: It’s been changing and it might depend on what they
end up proposing and amending and so forth. I think politicians
are inclined to support the President and inclined to do whatever
will spend more money because virtually all of them, or most of
them, are invested in the military-industrial complex here in the
United States. But they are also reacting to pressures from home,
many of them are up for reelection next year, and the people
don’t want this. People in the United States want peace despite
our government’s very different behavior around the world -- that
is not what Americans want. Once they enter in a war, many in
America tend to be silent because they don’t want to put our
servicemen and women at risk, so they will just stop talking
about it once a strike occurs and we need to make sure that
doesn’t happen.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.