The final presidential debate earlier this week was a tailor-made opportunity for Mitt Romney to rip into President Obama’s inconsistent, value-free and at times incoherent foreign policy. And it was also an opportunity for the president to explain his administration’s material misrepresentations on the murders of our ambassador and others in Libya. Instead, we heard silence from both of them on this topic.
One can conclude from this that the president uttered a silent sigh of relief when he dodged a bullet. And one can conclude that Romney wanted to look and sound presidential and emphasize his economic credentials and allay fears that he wants another war. Whatever the gain and whatever the strategy, this matter of American deaths in Libya is of vital importance to American voters.
It is important because it shows how far the American government has drifted from the confines of the Constitution and how far we as a people have drifted from the rule of law. The president bombed Libya last year in a successful effort to remove Col. Qaddafi from power. Qaddafi was a monster, but he kept the streets safe, the mobs from foreign embassies and consulates, and the terrorists in jail.
In 2005, President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair praised Qaddafi as a partner in the war on terror because he disposed of his nuclear weaponry and he arrested and resisted Al Qaeda operatives. Obama, who last year claimed he did not have the time to seek authorization from Congress to bomb Libya as the Constitution requires, but did have the time to seek approvals from NATO and the Arab League, also claimed at the time and as recently as last Monday night that there were no American boots on the ground during the bombing. That, of course, is patently false and is known to be false.
American fighter planes (boots in the skies) would not be sent to bomb a foreign land without guidance from troops on the ground. I suspect that by “boots,” Obama meant “uniforms.” We know that American intelligence agents and American Special Forces — neither of whose personnel wear uniforms, but most of whom no doubt wear boots on their feet in the Libyan desert — were there, are still there and were providing intelligence about Qaddafi and his military to aid the assault by U.S. warplanes.
By Andrew Napolitano
