Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton boasted Monday evening that not a single American was lost as a result of the United States’ involvement in the toppling Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi.
Her remarks came as she answered questions about her experience as secretary of state and her thoughts on U.S. foreign policy during a Democratic town hall hosted by MSNBC.
“Now, is Libya perfect? It isn’t. But did they have two elections that were free and fair, where they voted for moderates? Yes, they did. Changing from a dictator who has hollowed out your country to something resembling a functioning state, and even hopefully more of a democratic one, doesn’t happen overnight,” she said, referring to America’s role in removing Gadhafi.
“And we’ve got to continue to support the Libyan people to give them a chance. Because otherwise, you see what’s happened in Syria, with the consequences of millions of people flooding out of Syria, with more than 250,000 people killed, with terrorist groups like [the Islamic State] taking up almost — a huge swath of territory, as big as some of the states in that area,” she added.
Clinton continued, claiming Libya can be counted as a U.S. foreign policy success due to the fact no Americans were killed during the ousting of Gaddafi. On the other hand, she added, the same probably couldn’t be said if the United State involved itself in stopping Syrian President Bashar Assad’s bloody civil war.
“Yes, Libya was a different kind of calculation, and we didn’t lose a single person,” Clinton told MSNBC’s Chris Matthews.
Gadhafi died on Oct. 20, 2011.
“We came, we saw, he died!” an excited Clinton exclaimed in an unscripted moment when she learned of the dictator’s death. She added later that his being overthrown probably had something to do with her recent visit to Libya.
Nearly one year later, in September 2012, four Americans, including a U.S. ambassador, were murdered by terrorists during an all-out assault on U.S. facilities in Benghazi.
The attack, which was carried out by Islamic militants, lasted more than 13 hours. American personnel involved in the assault repeatedly called for backup, but they never received it.
