Sen. Marco Rubio Says Had US Moved More Aggressively, Gadhafi’s Killing Would Have Happened Months Ago
EmailSen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who traveled with other members of Congress to Libya last month, said that even though the administration’s handling of Libya turned out well, as evidenced by the killing of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi today, the administration ”failed” by moving too slow at the outset, with consequences already seen for the country.
“I think the president did the right thing, he just took too long to do it and he didn’t do enough of it,” Rubio said at a news conference today. “Had the U.S. gotten in early, aggressively and decisively, today would have happened months ago, Libya wouldn’t be as destroyed, it wouldn’t cost as much money to rebuild, there wouldn’t be as many people dead or injured and there wouldn’t be as many injured or rockets missing.”
Rubio said the administration failed to “do the right thing at the right time,” and said credit should go to the right people for the killing of Gadhafi.
“Number one, the French and the British carried the load on that, and let’s not forget that,” he said. “Number two, the Libyan people … those are Libyans who are laying there in those beds and who fought for their freedom and were able to accomplish it. The British, the French and our NATO allies who were involved.”
The senator from Florida said this is a “new chapter” for the Libyan people “to create for themselves a free Libya,” but they face real challenges that the United States, he said, should help with.
“Primarily, in the short term, what we really could do to help, along with our allies,” Rubio said. “is to provide some medical assistance to help, especially those who have lost limbs to be able to rehab and be productive citizens and members of their work force.”
Best Commencement Speeches of 2012 
Joe Biden Recalls Death of Wife, Daughter
Marco Rubio is wrong, if we would have been more aggressive as the Bush administration was in Iraq, we would have had 100,000o troops with 20 to 30 casualties a day in Libya. Can’t these republicans give the President of the United State just a little credit where credit is due? And does this guy really think he’d make a good vice president.
Posted by: tmferretti | October 20, 2011, 2:57 pm 2:57 pm
Man, they cannot give this guy any credit without dissing him at the same time. Two faced cowards like Rubio just keeping adding to pile of trash that makes up the GOP.
Posted by: Paul | October 20, 2011, 3:01 pm 3:01 pm
LOL! Republicans were SCREAMING about our limited presence in Libya from day one. But now that Quadaffi is GONE, this arse complains that we didn’t do enough? Why does ANYONE support the Republican Party anymore…?
Posted by: Searambler | October 20, 2011, 3:02 pm 3:02 pm
Do they realize how stupid they sound?
Posted by: MyTakeOnThis61 | October 20, 2011, 3:16 pm 3:16 pm
Hindsight is 20/20 and coincidentally, GOP a$$holes like Rubio have 20/20 hhmmmm…….
Posted by: D | October 20, 2011, 3:32 pm 3:32 pm
Rubio is a little man thinking little man thoughts. Republicans are doomed. They are sinking themselves and the ironic thing is that they know it.
Posted by: Jeff | October 20, 2011, 3:46 pm 3:46 pm
LOL…LOL…it seems that all GOP ‘leaders’ (i.e. clowns) are just simply out of touch on foreign policy issues, no matter how much success the President has. Why not? Look at the ‘base’ of ‘non-thinkers’ that they are still pandering to.
Posted by: CND FOX | October 20, 2011, 4:02 pm 4:02 pm
The GOP is a joke. The previous blogs here are right on the spot, thanks guys. Obama 2012
Posted by: justuspofolks | October 20, 2011, 4:34 pm 4:34 pm
Obama 2012!!!!!!……………………………………………………………..Marco Rubio will disappear.
Posted by: gman | October 20, 2011, 5:28 pm 5:28 pm
Wow, the brave Marco Rubio, who has never served in the military, believes we should have been more aggressive with our military power. He speaks like a true “chicken hawk”. He and the others should be thankful that the mission was accomplished with no loss of American soldiers. People like Rubio don’t care about the military, they only care about promoting themselves and bashing the President.
Posted by: Pete | October 20, 2011, 7:16 pm 7:16 pm
What is the point of transmitting this stupid propaganda? Talk about newsmedia as stenography.
Posted by: Aaron | October 20, 2011, 7:44 pm 7:44 pm
Maybe Reagan and Bush-1 should have moved more quickly during the 1980s when Khaddafi was involved with terrorist attacks, like the Pan Am 103 bombing and the German Nightclub Bombing that killed U.S. Troops. How can he criticize Obama for cleaning up a mess the republicans ignored for decades?
Posted by: Doctor Serizawa | October 20, 2011, 9:45 pm 9:45 pm
Really Rubio? How long did it take Bush to find Osama?
Posted by: Misty Jean | October 20, 2011, 10:05 pm 10:05 pm
Marco Rubio is a partisan idiot who cannot help but lie. He also virtually guaranteed in his speculation that it was not a US strike on Gadaffi’s convoy that led to his capture, but our allies’. Rubio had to say this because to speculate otherwise would have been to give his enemy, the President of the United States, some credit for the capture of Gadaffi. Rubio is repulsive, and a proven liar (look at his manufactured family history).
Posted by: Eric | October 21, 2011, 7:43 am 7:43 am
Sooooo, they said there should be a no fly zone until Obama started with the no fly zone and air support. That is when they screamed impeachment for violating the War Powers Act. They said he got us into a third war. NOW they say he should have done it sooner and it was the British and the French; the US had nothing to do with it. PATHETIC! Of course, this only cost $2billion and ZERO American lives while the Bush fiascoes of Iraq/Afghanistan cost thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars. Maybe Obamas way of working with others is the way to go and they simply do not want to admit a Democrat seems to be better at this than they are.
Posted by: pksk531 | October 21, 2011, 8:45 am 8:45 am
Another point missing here is that President Obama let the people of Libya take the lead and let THEM overthrow their dictator, saving America blood and treasure. Had Bush let the people of Iraq overthrow THEIR dictator, he would have had the same result.
Posted by: Jeff | October 21, 2011, 9:46 am 9:46 am
Hypocrites in July all the Senate Republicans wanted to prosecute Obama for helping Libya.
Today he is criticized for not having done it before. They can not understand how we defeated a dictator and help wean a country without spilling a single drop of American blood.
Posted by: Manuel grossy | October 21, 2011, 10:29 am 10:29 am
What a buzzkill this Florida Senator is. At a time when Americans are celebrating a mission accomplished and the end of madman’s regime, we are told that it could have gone better.
Americans are seriously tired of partisanship sniping. It only gets worse in a presidential election yr.
Posted by: BostonRob | October 21, 2011, 1:48 pm 1:48 pm
Rubio is simply a Tool and undemines whatever credibility he had with this poorly constructed, poorly timed speeh intimating that thw US should have lost some lives and spent more money in the Libyan campaign. Another chicken hawk leading the charge.
He needs to starighten out his own manufactured family history and exit stage right.
Posted by: JHL | October 21, 2011, 2:37 pm 2:37 pm
The President in less than a year for Libya did what Bush did in 10 years in Iraq. Thank God that none of our military had to pay the ultimate price in Libya. The record speaks for itself … no need to embellish the truth Rubio (we know you are great at that lol..!
Posted by: Calipso | October 21, 2011, 7:29 pm 7:29 pm
This is further proof that the GOP main goal is to make sure that President Obama is a one-term president. It is THEIR main agenda from the time he took oath. Period. Country is second, and it has been proven time and again.
Posted by: bah | October 28, 2011, 2:19 pm 2:19 pm