Former Democratic presidential candidate Jim Webb criticized Hillary Clinton’s leadership in Libya, calling it “inept” and a “failure as Secretary of State.”
“Hillary Clinton should be called to account for her inept leadership that brought about the chaos in Libya, and the power vacuums that resulted in the rest of the region,” Webb wrote Saturday on Facebook.
Webb, who withdrew from the Democratic presidential primary in October, dismissed Clinton’s claim that removing Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi was necessary to avoid a catastrophe like Syria, referring to it as “nonsensical.” (RELATED: Webb Withdraws: ‘If We Ran An Independent Race … I Think We Could Beat Both Of Them’)
“She’ll need better answers than the recent nonsensical comment that she advocated taking out Muammar Qadaffi in Libya in order to avert a situation like Syria,” he said. “The predictable chaos in Libya was bad enough, but it also helped bring about the disaster in Syria. Who is taking her to task for this?”
Webb also argued that radical Islamist groups emerged after Gaddafi’s ouster, leading to the Benghazi attack that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.
“Radical Islamist groups, suppressed under Qaddafi, emerged as the fiercest rebels during the war, highlighted by the September 2012 attack on U.S. facilities in Benghazi that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three of his colleagues.”
The former Virginia senator also criticized Clinton for talking about the situation in Libya as if it was a successful aspect of her tenure as secretary of state.
“Clinton talked at this last DNC debate about her failure as Secretary of State as if she was successful,” Webb wrote in the post. “While she held that office, the U.S. spent about $2 billion backing the Libyan uprising against Qadaffi. The uprising, which was part of the Arab Spring, led directly to Qaddafi being removed from power and killed by rebel forces in 2011. Now some 2,000 ISIS terrorists have established a foothold in Libya.”
“For a Secretary of State (and a Presidential administration) this is foreign policy leadership at its worst,” he stated.