EQUALS
Posted on 09/15/2011 10:03:56 AM PDT by smoothsailing
by Raymond Ibrahim
Among other qualities, a good presidential candidate must be knowledgeable and able to think outside the box; equally important, he must not be naive or gullible — certainly not swallow everything the enemy says hook, line, and sinker.
During the recent Republican candidate debate, Congressman Ron Paul exhibited his ignorance and gullibility when the panel was asked: “Do you plan to decrease Defense spending, to balance spending, or do you believe high spending is essential to security?”
After Paul explained how he was “tired of all the militarism that we are involved in,” and his plan on cutting back, he said, “But we’re under great threat, because we occupy so many countries. … The purpose of al-Qaeda was to attack us, invite us over there, where they can target us … but we’re there occupying their land. And if we think that we can do that and not have retaliation, we’re kidding ourselves.”
This is, of course, an old and well known narrative.
By questioning Paul, however, Rick Santorum exposed the latter’s naivety when it comes to the goals and motives of al-Qaeda:
On your [Paul’s] Web site on 9/11, you had a blog post that basically blamed the United States for 9/11. On your Web site, yesterday, you said that it was our actions that brought about the actions of 9/11. Now, Congressman Paul, that is irresponsible. The president of the United States — someone who is running for the president of the United States in the Republican Party should not be parroting what Osama bin Laden said on 9/11. We should have — we are not being attacked and we were not attacked because of our actions. We were attacked, as Newt [Gingrich] talked about, because we have a civilization that is antithetical to the civilization of the jihadists [full transcript here].
After rejecting Santorum’s thesis, Paul made his fatal blunder:
Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda have been explicit — they have been explicit, and they wrote and said that we attacked America because you had bases on our holy land in Saudi Arabia, you do not give Palestinians fair treatment, and you have been bombing — [audience booing] I didn’t say that. I’m trying to get you to understand what the motive was behind the bombing.
This exchange clearly revealed Paul’s lack of knowledge concerning the nature of the enemy. After all, it’s one thing for some Americans to believe that the source of all conflict is the United State’s presence in some countries, it’s quite another — it’s dangerous — for a potential president to think, and speak, this way.
Ironically, Paul even contradicted himself: minutes earlier, when discussing the need to cut back on the military, he complained that we had a military presence in 130 countries — bringing to mind the question: why haven’t these countries lashed out?
But what’s worse is Paul’s naivety — that he would actually swallow and regurgitate verbatim the propaganda al-Qaeda has been dishing for years: thus “Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda have been explicit — they have been explicit, and they wrote and said”; and “I’m trying to get you to understand what the motive was behind the bombing.”
Did it never occur to the congressman that al-Qaeda could be, um, lying? Had he bothered to juxtapose al-Qaeda’s propaganda to the West — which indeed does amount to blaming U.S. foreign policy for their terrorism — with the other things “they wrote and said,” he would have learned their ultimate motives.
For example, for all his talk that U.S. “occupation” is the heart of the problem, shortly after the 9/11 strikes, Osama bin Laden wrote to fellow Muslims:
Our talks with the infidel West and our conflict with them ultimately revolve around one issue — one that demands our total support, with power and determination, with one voice — and it is: Does Islam, or does it not, force people by the power of the sword to submit to its authority corporeally if not spiritually? Yes. There are only three choices in Islam: [1] either willing submission [conversion]; [2] or payment of the jizya, through physical, though not spiritual, submission to the authority of Islam; [3] or the sword — for it is not right to let him [an infidel] live. The matter is summed up for every person alive: Either submit, or live under the suzerainty of Islam, or die. (The Al Qaeda Reader, p. 42)
This medieval threefold choice, then — conversion, subjugation, or the sword — is the ultimate source of conflict, not U.S foreign policy (see also “Reciprocal Treatment or Religious Obligation,” which compares al-Qaeda’s messages to the West with its internal messages to Muslims, documenting all the contradictions).
The good news is that, if Paul is ignorant and naive regarding al-Qaeda and its motives, based on all the loud booing he received, increasing numbers of Americans are not.
the Founding Fathers believed in peace through strength. Ron Paul believes that if we are nice to moslims, they will not try to hurt us. This rationality vs delusion.
I got it and you're right, most get it. Those beating their drums while pointing towards Afcrapistan and Outer Mongolia while throwing trillions at these destructive country killing foreign polices, stand on the sidelines applauding, while the life is literally being sucked out of America like a giant vacuum.
Well duh....
You’re a PaulBot
I like your tagline! :)
Well, I've seen enough of your posts over the years to know you're in the dishonest category. Your responses can be dismissed out of hand.
They are waskly weasles.
Sad, because they are sooo sure they are right and soooo deceptive because they know their beliefs are rejected by 90 percent of conservatives.
So, they have to talk in half-truths, jumping hoops of partial truth so they won’t be seen as Paulians, thus instantly losing credibility...
Sad.
I’ll bet my tagline hits a nerve and thus the projection.
Notice how Paul and his Paultards get all hyped up over defense costs, but you rarely hear them complaining about the (significanlty higher) costs for the welfare/entitlement programs or other blatantly wasteful, abusive spending?
The Paul Cult is Code Pinkishly obsessed with its anti-military, anti-defense agenda.
As an aside, Paul sounds like a grouchy old coot yelling at kids on his lawn when he launches into his anti-war screeds in the debates.
EQUALS
Hey girl...glad to see you back in the USA...and replying to Paul supporters and making any sense is like trying to shove a noodle up fat pigs butt...it probably can be done but who wants to waste the energy...
While their own home is fully engulfed in fire, economy in flames over deep water, their allegedly consumed with concern over borders in countries where cows are worshiped or filled with people slapping themselves in the face while chanting voodoo babble.
Hey girl...glad to see you back in the USA...and replying to Paul supporters and making any sense is like trying to shove a wet noodle up fat pigs butt...it probably can be done but who wants to waste the energy...
Good article.
Of course you did. You're one of the old hands here that can remember when this forum had a more thoughtful and intellectual tenor to it. Back when a thread on Burkean philosophy would garner as many or more responses as a campaign speech. Most of those posters now gone.
You've been around long enough to know the different categories of posters - the not too bright but sincere cat ladies who just post parroting of what they heard or read somewhere else.
The partisan hacks who can switch their opinion on a dime on a policy by whether a D or a R proposes it. Then the ones who obviously have skin in the game maintaining the status quo.The less than honest ones who will make ludicrous statements about securing the borders and immigration policy not being related to war (as if we didn't have the history of WWI and WWII to draw upon).
Right in the ten ring.
Outstanding TV.
Heeeeeheeee
Glad to see you PaulTards talking to each other in your very own echo chamber...just like on the PaulNut forums lol.
Liberty, liberty, constitiution. Liberty, straw poll, money bomb, liberty, constitution. Ron Paul, Ron Paul, Ron Paul, Bildeburger, liberty, constitution.
I win the debate.
omg, you are killin me
lmmfao
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