Presidential Candidate Issues Statement on Libya & Cairo Attacks...and It's Not Romney or Obama

Following Tuesday's attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and the murder of Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens, Foreign Service Information Management Officer Sean Smith, and two United States Marines*, Libertarian presidential candidate and former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson issued the following statement:

It is tragic when Americans serving their country are murdered, and we both mourn their loss and honor their service.

Part of honoring that service is to ask the obvious question: What U.S. interest is being served by putting our people -- and our money -- in places where U.S. personnel can be killed by extremists over a video? We launched millions of dollars worth of missiles to bring down Gaddafi, and this is what we get. We hail and encourage the outbreak of an Arab Spring in Egypt, send them billions of dollars we can’t afford, -- and our embassy is breached and our flag desecrated.

In Afghanistan, we continue to put our troops in harm’s way 10 years after our post-9/11 mission was complete. Why?

The airwaves are filled today with political chest-pounding and calls for decisive action. The most decisive and prudent action we can take today is to stop trying to manage governments and peoples on the other side of the globe who don’t want to be managed, get our people out of impossible situations that have no direct U.S. interest, and immediately stop sending money to regimes who clearly cannot or will not control their own countries.

Protecting America with a strong national defense and a rational foreign policy is our leaders’ most basic responsibility. But let us not confuse national security with senseless intervention where our interests are clearly not being served.

As for the other presidential candidates: Former Gov. Mitt Romney has condemned both the attacks on the consulate and the administration's initial response to the siege of the Cairo embassy and President Barack Obama has promised to bring those responsible for the riots to justice.

UPDATE: Contrary to what was initially reported about the deaths in Libya, two of the men with the U.S. ambassador were former SEALs -- not U.S. Marines.

Follow Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) on Twitter

Front page photo courtesy Gage Skidmore