BREAKING NEWS!!

From Eric Dondero:

Ryan Christiano, Co-Chairman of the Libertarian Defense Caucus and an editorial board member of Libertarian Republican, asked us to publish the following letters in full. The first is from LDC's longest standing and most Senior member, LDC Co-Chair Kevin Bjornson. It is in response to a release sent out by Libertarian Party Executive Director Wes Benedict. Below Bjornson's response is Benedict's letter in full to Libertarian Party members. Needless to say, and I believe I speak for the LR editorial board, endorse Bjornson's remarks.

It should be noted Kevin Bjornson is an original member of the Libertarian Party; as in he was there at the founding of the LP way back in the early 1970s. He lives in Washington State, one of the two states where John Hospers the LP's first Presidential candidate was on the ballot in 1972. Benedict, on the other hand, is relatively new to the LP. Both Bjornson and Benedict attended the recent Libertarian Party national convention in St. Louis.

Bjornson's Letter

Wes Benedict, "LP executive director":

Your recent communique (appended below) tends to alienate at least half of your LP audience. Is that your intention?

Do you intend to cleanse the LP of all but a tiny clique centered around spurious sources like IBC and anti-war.com?

Fact-checking your statistics is an Alice-in-Wonderland journey through America's anti-war fringe, where far-left meets far-right.

For example: your claims for US-caused civilian casualties are sourced to this website:

http://www.iraqbodycount.org/

However, when I click unto their source, I get this:

http://www.iraqbodycount.org/database/

Clearly, this source is self-referential. They do claim a few sources, in general terms (like "media reports " or "Iraqi government sources"--with no links as to where specifically all these numbers were published, or proof linking the statistics to reality.

In fact, the statistics of alleged US victims mostly include:

"suicide bombers" "roadside bombs" and "shot" by insurgents. So attributing the cause of their misfortune to the US is disingenuous--akin to blaming US attacks on Hitler as the cause of the holocaust.

In fact, this page reaches a dead-end, wherein they assert as proof of their statistics, that they are from irregular and non-transparent sources:

1 We join UNAMI's call for the Iraqi Government to provide this information of important public interest regularly and in a transparent manner. UNAMI HR Report, 1 Jan - 31 Mar 2007. Page 3 Para 2. (PDF)

Yet another "source" is self-referential:

http://www.iraqbodycount.org/about/

Worse, this "source" admits they record all violent deaths, simply assuming they are all the fault of the US.

And further assuming, our only alternative to present policies is withdrawal to US soil, in the vain hope that oceans and a pious attitude will protect our homeland while saving foreign
victims.

These series of self-referential websites read as if written by grad students doing a parody of a superficially academic style.

Pompous enough to persuade the gullible, but without credibility or substance.

I must protest at this sophomoric display. This clearly diverges from your job description-which is executive and not policy-devising.

You are not recruiting libertarians, but trying to re-make the LP in your image. You are making dovish foreign policy dovishness, and not the pledge or NAP, the litmus test for libertarianism.

You pontifications are causing grave harm to the LP.

Thank goodness the LP has near-zero credibility, or your editorials would cause grave harm to the country.

Civilization is engaged in a war with barbarism and religious zealotry. This conflict will continue until we are vanquished or victorious, and cannot be ended unilaterally by the partial surrender you advocate.

If you cannot restrain your actions to those within your legitimate purview, you have sat too long in your position for any good you have been doing. In that case, your best course is to depart, and let us have done with you. In the name of Ayn Rand, go!

Kevin Bjornson
Libertarian Defense Caucus

Wes Benedict's original letter to LP Members

July 5, 2010

Dear Friend of Liberty,

The long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been back in the news recently, and we just had the bizarre spectacle of the Republican National Committee Chairman saying he didn't like Obama's war in Afghanistan, while the DNC chastised him for failing to support the troops.

Here are ten reasons to end the wars now. I hope you'll take a look at some of the links.

1. American military and contractor casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan.

2. Iraqi and Afghanistan civilian and military casualties.

3. These wars are a tremendous waste of taxpayer money in a time of extreme deficits, high unemployment and a falling stock market.

4. Invading and occupying Afghanistan and Iraq feeds terrorism.

5. Osama Bin Laden and his co-conspirators who attacked the World Trade Center were Saudi Arabian.

6. As Congressman Ron Paul recently said: "In Afghanistan, we are fighting the Taliban, those dangerous people with guns defending their homeland. Once they were called the Mujahideen, our old allies, along with bin Laden, in the fight to oust the Soviets from Afghanistan in the 1980s."

7. Most Republicans in Congress now admit Iraq was a mistake.

8. Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele's comments show that even the hawkish Republican Party can't support this war with a straight face.

9. As James Madison said, "If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy." (Witness the PATRIOT Act.)

10. The U.S. military has been in Iraq over seven years, and in Afghanistan almost nine years. It's time to give peace a chance.

(Note, the LP doesn't necessarily endorse the organizations linked above. We encourage you to research these issues for yourself.)

Sincerely,

Wes Benedict

For more info on the Libertarian Defense Caucus DefendLiberty.org