Posted on 12/31/2007 6:57:53 AM PST by america4vr
The conventional wisdom among presidential candidates is that the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has proved the importance of continued American meddling in that land. Both Republicans and Democrats are rushing to mumble incoherent platitudes before the cameras while several have even proclaimed their next big idea for how Pakistan ought to be run.
Democratic candidate Bill Richardson made his first headline in months by proclaiming that President Bush ought to give former General – now just "President" – Pervez Musharraf his pink slip. Most of the rest simply say we should "support democracy" there.
This "wisdom" of interference is so conventional that CNN's Wolf Blitzer expressed shock when Republican candidate Rep. Ron Paul of Texas said that the tragedy proved his case for nonintervention in the affairs of other nations. We should not, Paul said, either subsidize or work to undermine other governments because such policies invariably only empower our enemies.
But why should Blitzer have been shocked?
Benazir Bhutto herself thought this was so. In one of her last interviews, she told Parade magazine, "[The U.S.] policy of supporting dictatorship is breaking up my country. I now think al Qaeda can be marching on Islamabad in two to four years."
As Paul told David Shuster of MSNBC, "the murderers are 100 percent responsible" for what they have done, but we should not look at the events of this week in a vacuum.
The U.S. has poured tens of billions of dollars into Musharraf's dictatorship while he has failed to prevent the entrenchment of Qaeda radicals hiding out on the Afghan border, and numerous attacks by them, revealing the overall policy to be flawed and counterproductive.
(Excerpt) Read more at hnn.us ...
problem is ron paul makes so much sense he sounds crazy.
Ron Paul is crazy, as a fox taking money from George Soros and backing ultra liberal ideas, he is a red herring set to steal numbers from true republican candidates.
Happy New Year!
America can no more refuse to interact with other nations than human beings can refuse to interact with other human beings.
The inevitable consequence of Paul's logic is that the US would refuse to recognize that there are any other sovereign nations and withdraw all our ambassadors and consuls, send home all other countries' ambassadors and consuls, and abrogate all treaties and agreements between the US and other nations.
In other words: idiocy of the highest order.
Who is Ron Paul?
Pakistan is the “tar baby” and the USA is Brer Rabbit. We need to get the hell out of there and nuke any one who messes with us.
Bolton also agrees that US intervention was a factor. [Fox News]
I find that very interesting forwarding to our leader Mr. R.
Ops4
The U.S. Has been involved with Pakistan for over 60 years now our intervention has something to do with htese nut jobs.
Quit the Bashing and back your country. Unless the USA is not your country.
Don't forget your meds.
The current relationship we have with countries like Pakistan seems to be the worst possible one: we are sufficiently engaged with them so as to get blamed when something goes wrong, while not having the leverage to actually get them to do anything.
It's nothing new.
Dont forget your country.
What if a child molester is trying to interact with a child? Not all interactions are welcome, nor should be.
If you have adult children, do you tell your adult children which sexual positions they are allowed to enjoy in the bedroom? Of course, not. It's not your damn business and the odds that your order would be what was best are small. What the US is doing in Pakistan is more bizarre. We're telling the adult children of other parents what they are allowed to do.
Pakistanis don't pay US taxes. They have no representation in our government. But we are comfortable telling them how to run their country. It's madness and we'd NEVER accept that from some other country. What if France decided it was going to order us around? Would you be fine with that?
"[The U.S.] policy of supporting dictatorship is breaking up my country. I now think al Qaeda can be marching on Islamabad in two to four years."
Why should eggheads in our government have more say in Pakistan's affairs than a Pakistani like Bhutto?
Some sort of Shrimp Dealer in Texas, maybe!
well if I am correct(not a Paul guy myself), Paul doesn’t say cease all intereaction.. just quit sending them money.
geez.. thats beyond editorializing and into the realm of smearing the guy.
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