Hi folks! Happy birthday to me! That’s right, I turned 32 Friday. And do you know what I’m going to be doing tonight? Handing out lit at the Ballston metro station!
Oh what fun 🙂
On a more serious note, I wanted to pass along to you a press release I wrote a few days ago in response to the President’s address regarding further military intervention in the Middle East and our [new] strategy to “degrade and ultimately destroy ISIS”. Americans Can Handle the Truth Regarding Our Failed Interventionist Foreign Policy
Jeffrey Carson, Libertarian Candidate for Congress in Virginia’s 8th Congressional District, takes firm stance against any unilateral action against ISIS by the President. Action without Congressional authorization would be a blatant and illegal violation of our Constitution.
“The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation.”
The President’s duplicity on this particular issue is yet another perfect example of what’s wrong with our current political system and the two major parties at the helm.
The situation with ISIS is clearly a regional problem that should be dealt with by those within the region itself. American intervention will only further undermine our strategic long-term goals of peace and prosperity in the region, serve to escalate the violence and the killings, and act as a primary recruiting tool for the types of organizations we wish to eradicate–in other words, it will be a repeat of 2003 Iraq. It will also put us square in the middle of a sectarian conflict that has been ongoing for 1000 years, and we will be seen as taking sides with one (Shia) against the other (Sunni).
At this point, it should be clear that our meddlesome, haphazard, and dangerous interventionist escapades over the past 13 years of our “War on Terror” have not served to bring peace to the region or safety to Americans here at home or abroad. In fact, our policies have inspired the opposite reaction. Iraq is far worse off today than it was under Saddam. The same is true of Libya and Gaddafi, as well as Syria and Bashar al-Assad (although he is still technically in power). Terrorism is not on the decline; it’s on the rise. And because of blowback, Americans are more a target today than ever before. The President’s rhetoric aside, things are not going well. At what point do we learn our lesson? How many more U.S. service members have to lose their lives? How many more innocent civilians? How many more countries do we have to turn into failed states and “Jihadist Wonderlands” before we realize that our intervention is part of the problem? Enough already. We need to restore sanity to our foreign policy, and I’m the only candidate in the race that’s intent on doing so.
Former Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, may have said it best a few years back in regards to further involvement in Syria and (prior) involvement in Libya: “We overestimate our ability to determine outcomes.”
The U.S. will always be a friend to those who value freedom, but this is not our fight and not our war. It’s time for Americans to be told the truth: our recent hyper-interventionist foreign policy has been an utter failure and has led to worse outcomes across the region and the globe. It’s time for politicians to own up to their mistakes and make the moral and practical decision to forgo intervening in the ISIS conflict.
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If you’re interested in getting involved with the campaign, please email our volunteer coordinator, Matthew, at volunteer@jeffreycarson.com. I could really use your help, folks. Come join the team! If you can’t invest your time, I would certainly appreciate it if you would consider investing in the campaign with a contribution. For the record, every dime of net worth I have is in this race. Is $5, $10, $50, $100, $500, $1000, $2600 (the max) really too much to ask of you?
From the bottom of my heart, thank you to everyone who has already invested precious time and hard-earned dollars.
Respectfully,
Jeffrey Carson
P.S.
We received fantastic coverage on the debate this past week from ARLnow. Kudos to them for their objective reporting. Also, if you haven’t seen me in action yet, click here – the link cuts directly to my opening statement.
Finally, my good friend Robert Sarvis, U.S. Senate candidate for Virginia, is celebrating his 38th Birthday this Monday, 15 September. Click here for details if you’re interested in joining him! |
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The Insomniac Libertarian 