One of the negative byproducts of the rise of Trump and the general lack of libertarian involvement since that rise has been a demonstrably less pro liberty delegate slate than what we had in 2012. Fortunately, CSPAN provided us with a breath of fresh air in the form of this impassioned speech from a Liberty Conservative endorsed state senator from Maine, Eric Brakey. Brakey, one of the rising stars of the liberty movement, introduced separate resolutions to condemn the war in Libya as well as remove language from the Republican platform supporting military intervention in Syria. Pointing out that even the presumptive GOP Nominee acknowledged the folly of overthrowing secular dictators and watching them be replaced by radical Islamists, Brakey admonished his fellow delegates for their support of a foreign policy strategy that has consistently grown government while failing to deliver results.
“This amendment is basically to clarify what some of the causes of the rise of ISIS are in the Middle East.” Brakey said while introducing the resolution regarding Libya “We see time and time again that every time we take out a secular dictator in this area with no exit strategy, this kind of nation building approach to foreign policy is not something that has been successful and all we’ve done is played into the hands of radical groups like ISIS and Al Qaeda, giving them the power and the opportunity to seize geography and seize land. As we are looking forward, this would discourage this policy so we can focus on the real enemy in the middle east, which is Radical Islam and ISIS.”
Once the resolution regarding Libya was voted down and criticized by several delegates, Brakey became even more bold. He attacked the pro life credentials of those who would support a war in Syria, implying they were careless about war and lacked regard for civilian casualties. Brakey’s full throated attack on the thuggishness of interventionism should be celebrated by libertarians across the country who are seeking a bold champion of non intervention going forward.
“This amendment assumes that we are going to depose the government of Syria. We really have seen, again and again, this strategy of deposing secular dictators has just led to chaos in the area. We did this with Mummar Gadaffi, who was a terrible evil person, but what has he been replaced with? ISIS. We did this in Iraq as well with Saddam Hussein, and what has that led to? ISIS. Even our presumptive nominee acknowledges that the decision to take out the secular dictator in Iraq Saddam Hussein was a mistake. This is a continuation of the same failed policy. We need to ask, how many millions of innocent civilians have died and what has the result been? Chaos and the rise of ISIS. We really need to decide, are we really the party that believes that war is a last resort? Or are we the party that enters into it so carelessly, and we say ‘collateral damage be damned’? Are we the pro life party that values the sanctity of human life, or are we the pro war party that says we don’t care how many innocent civilians die, we don’t care what the results are? We see time and again, we have example after example the failure of this policy, and we’re preparing to do it all over again. I highly recommend that we adopt this amendment, strike out this language, it will be a disaster. It will empower ISIS if we continue on this path and we take out the Syrian regime.”
Liberty lovers across the country are looking for new champions after the disaster that was the Rand Paul 2016 campaign, and Eric Brakey has shown time and time again that he has what it takes to be one of those rising stars. This Liberty Conservative is incredibly excited to see what he will bring to the table in the future!
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