Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) said on Tuesday that the civil war in Libya was like the onset of the Holocaust and the Rwandan genocide in that it demanded action from the forces of good.
“My view is that there are times in American history — Rwanda was one, bombing the tracks during the onset to the Holocaust, that we could have sent a bomber wing in to take out the tracks, we didn’t do it — we look back and we see we should use military force to try and defend people who can’t defend themselves,” Weiner said Monday on the Don Imus show in New York.
“If we are a powerful country one of the ways we use our power is for good,” Weiner said. “What’s the purpose of being a powerful country if we are not using it to defend people?”
The U.S. launched more than 110 cruise missiles over the weekend and has sustained an attack through the beginning of the week against military installations and forces controlled by Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.
Although Weiner defended Obama’s decision to lead a coalition on the initial attack, he said the president had erred by initiating the conflict without first seeking the permission of Congress, which according to the Constitution holds the sole power to declare war.
“I do believe the president made a mistake by not going to Congress and asking for permission,” Weiner said.
(Source: The Hill)
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12 Responses
Two points…
1) Why is it that obama got elected on a platform of STOPPING the war against THIS country’s enemies, but feels (like Weiner) that America has to fight for what is going on INTERNALLY in OTHER countries?!?
2) The analogy to the Holocaust is a poor one to say the least. As we all know, the Holocaust was the mass, genocidal murder of people who were loyal, productive, law-abiding citizens, and whose only “crime” was that they were Jews.
The case in Libya is completely different. Khadafi IS, undoubtedly a cruel, terrible leader, and if his people want to attempt to overthrow him, it is very understandable. But it is also understandable if Khadafi fights back against these revolutionaries.
In any case it is an INTERNAL, Libyan issue. From an American point of view, we have absolutely no reason to believe that if Khadafi is thrown out, that a new government will be better for the Libyan people OR for the United States (and it might even be worse!)
Why should the United States, where we are already in a terrible recession that we have yet to get out of, where we have a national debt of trillions of dollars that is growing daily, – WHY should we be risking American lives and spending hundreds of millions of dollars (already!) to fight in Libya?!?
#1 is correct, and Weiner’s remarks comparing Libya to the Holocaust is disgusting.
Weiner married an Arab shiksa. What do you expect from him?
#1 and #2 are completely wrong. Qadafi isn’t just killing rebels, he is massacring large numbers of civilians. All of President Obama’s political enemies would be screaming for his head had he stood by and let the carnage go on.
Stalin’s mass murder was an “internal” affair. So was Mao’s, and so was that of Pol Pot. So was the extermination of the Jews of Germany and its allies. This kind of isolationist sentiment is worthy of the 1930s America First movement. It is not something we Jews can countenance.
charliehall…
Where are you getting this information?
WHY would he massacre large numbers of his own people if they were not part of the rebellion against him?
#4 are you comparing this to the holocaust?
Also Saddam was massacring the kurds and Shias in far greater number, but I know you were against the Iraq war. Interesting…
Not a typical activity for me, but I would like to defend Rep. Weiner.
He was NOT comparing the moral repulsiveness of the holocaust to the Libyan situation…
He was saying that in the Holocaust, the Rwandan genocide, and in the Libyan situation now (obviously all bad but not equal situations) that air force attacks can save lives against forces of evil. That is a good comparison. Just as with the Holocaust, the tracks could have been bombed (w/o much or any sacrifice of lives of American army), so too in Libya, the World/US can bomb various Gov’t run military operations against civilians…
I do not believe the US is planning a ground attack, nor do I think the military activities are considered very dangerous. The expenses also (especially if shared with the international community) not overly significant like a war…Just because one is in recession, doesn’t mean one can’t spend any money on saving civilians against brutal dictators…
I would like to also say the title is a little misleading. We have become more and more jaded at the severity of the holocaust. The topic should be treated with more carefulness in my opinion by ywn…
DQB
Daniel,
Good point and I agree with you in this case, as long as he is not comparing the two. I still am against the war though.
However, be wary of saying the war in Libya will not be expensive and not dangerous, an F-15 was shot down yesterday and American troops had to rescue the pilots they killed 6 people supposedly civilians (not sure about that point)
Also there is no end game like Iraq this could cost a lot more than people expect, although I doubt it will, you never know.
“WHY would he massacre large numbers of his own people if they were not part of the rebellion against him?”
Why not? He has no sense of morality. He’d massacre everyone of us if he could get away with it. For the first time the world is putting its foot down and saying, “Enough!” But YWN armchair analysts are defending the bloody butcher?
“#4 are you comparing this to the holocaust?”
No.
” I know you were against the Iraq war.”
I supported the first Iraq war and thought that Bush 41’s letting the US Army stand by while the Kurds and Shiites got massacred by Saddam may cause him to lose whatever place he had in whatever his world to come was — and this was after we had encouraged them to rebel. It was the second Iraq war that was based on total lies.
Like the war in Libya. Look at hypocricy of America in regards to Bahrain and Yemen, and look at where a large percentage of al Qaida members fighting in Iraq came from, the answer would be Eastern Libya.
Obama handed Egypt to the Muslim brotherhood, now he wants to hand Libya to Al Qaeda.
he U.S. West Point Military Academy’s Combating Terrorism Center document reveals that Libya sent more fighters to Iraq’s Islamic militancy on a per-capita basis than any other Muslim country, including Saudi Arabia.
Perhaps more alarmingly for Western policymakers, most of the fighters came from eastern Libya, the center of the current uprising against Muammar el-Qaddafi.
The eastern Libyan city of Darnah sent more fighters to Iraq than any other single city or town, according to the West Point report. It noted that 52 militants came to Iraq from Darnah, a city of just 80,000 people (the second-largest source of fighters was Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which has a population of more than 4 million).
~20% of al qaida members in Iraq came from Libya despite having a tiny population of 6m ppl compared to the world muslim population of ~1.5 billion!!!!!!!
Benghazi, the capital of Libya’s provisional government declared by the anti-Qaddafi rebels, sent in 21 fighters, again a disproportionate number of the whole.