On the recordSeptember 12, 2012
I could not agree more with my friend from Arizona. It would really dishonor the service of Chris Stevens and the other three Americans who served us in Libya if their murders by these extremists led us to retrench and pull out of Libya and stop supporting the new Libyan Government, democratically elected, pull out of other parts of the Arab world. That would be exactly the opposite of what Ambassador Stevens devoted his life to. As I mentioned, inspired by his experience as a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco, he devoted the rest of his life to service on America's behalf in the Middle East. The last thing he would want this murder to do is to lead us to pull out, leave the area. It would also be the fondest hope of the attackers, the extremists. Why do they attack? They attack to kill individual people, but they really attack to, as I said before, push America out and create a war between the Western world, America, and Islam. It is not natural. It is not the direction in which history is going. History is going much more toward integration. In fact, the revolution in Libya, which has gone so successfully when you consider the 40 years of dictatorship under which they lived--they held a free election. They elected what I would describe as a moderate rule-of-law slate to run the country.…





