Dear President Obama,

Let me first start out by addressing a reoccurring pattern in history. As I am sure you remember the Marshall Plan was meant to "rebuild" Europe after the destruction of World War II. “Marshall delivered his famous address on the idea for European recovery at Harvard University on June 5, 1947. In the following months, Marshall and others drafted a plan that embodied his conviction that economic recovery and stability were vital to the rebuilding of a democratic Europe.” It is clear to me that you were thinking along those lines when you invaded Libya. Your invasion of Libya has given the people of the United States a true look at your foreign policies in the Middle East and North Africa as well as some of your recent speeches such as when you were quoted as saying, “Born, as we are, out of a revolution by those who longed to be free, we welcome the fact that history is on the move in the Middle East and North Africa, and that young people are leading the way. Because wherever people long to be free, they will find a friend in the United States.” This tells us that your foreign policy echoes the Marshal Plan because it says that Americas should intervene when people are fighting for freedom and ask for help, when our interests are at stake (oil and security in Libya’s case and capitalism vs. communism in Europe’s case), when we have international support, and when other countries are prepared or willing to help us fight.
It is especially clear that it is important to you to have other countries support us when you say, “It is true that America cannot use our military wherever repression occurs. And given the costs and risks of intervention, we must always measure our interests against the need for action. But that cannot be an argument for never acting on behalf of what’s right. In this particular country – Libya; at this particular moment, we were faced with the prospect of violence on a horrific scale. We had a unique ability to stop that violence: an international mandate for action, a broad coalition prepared to join us, the support of Arab countries, and a plea for help from the Libyan people themselves. I support your “middle ground” stance on foreign policy. Your views are like a breath of fresh, air after having a president who was on one extreme side of not doing anything in a situation similar to Libya’s (President Clinton, Bosnia/ Rwanda) and a president on the other end of the spectrum who was extreme in his tactics of forcing regime change (President Bush, Iraq). In speaking of the previous comparison, your views would fall under a happy medium between the two polar opposites of doing something about the situation while not pushing change too hard on the people of that country.
Sincerely,
Malia Bence