Posted on 12/29/2011 5:53:34 AM PST by SJackson
Rep. Ron Paul believes the United States is a greedy, militaristic empire that brought 9/11 upon itself. He believes that Iran poses no threat to U.S. or Israeli security and that Iran deserves to have a nuclear weapon if it wants one. As for Israel, he does not think it should have ever come into existence as a Jewish state. Nevertheless, Ron Paul, whose crackpot beliefs would be disastrous for the United States and the free world if ever implemented, is a serious contender for the GOP presidential nomination.
With money, good organization, a demagogic message that has a surface appeal to voters looking for a radical break with the status quo and an enthusiastic cadre of supporters fueling his campaign, Paul has vaulted into the top tier of Republican presidential candidates in the Iowa caucuses, which he could well win on January 3rd. He is virtually tied with Newt Gingrich for second place in New Hampshire after the heavy favorite, Mitt Romney. Overall, Paul is currently running third in the RealClearPolitics average of national polls.
Pauls foreign policy philosophy hearkens back to the pre-World War II America First isolationist movement that was shattered with the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. In fact, Paul would have been right at home in that movement. According to Eric Dondero, a former senior aide to the congressman, Paul believed that the United States had no business getting involved in fighting Hitler in World War II. He expressed to me countless times, that saving the Jews, was absolutely none of our business, Dondero said. When pressed, he often times brings up conspiracy theories like FDR knew about the attacks of Pearl Harbor weeks before hand.
Paul has harbored similar conspiratorial thoughts about 9/11. Dondero said that his former boss
engaged in conspiracy theories including perhaps the attacks were coordinated with the CIA, and that the Bush administration might have known about the attacks ahead of time. He expressed no sympathies whatsoever for those who died on 9/11, and pretty much forbade us staffers from engaging in any sort of memorial expressions
Paul was opposed to the war in Afghanistan from the outset, and to any military reaction to the attacks of 9/11, according to Dondero. It was only after feeling intense political heat from his home district that Paul reluctantly reversed his initial opposition to the resolution authorizing military action in Afghanistan and decided at the last minute to vote yes.
In Ron Pauls Blame America world view, the U.S. military, which conquered fascism and has since World War II helped to liberate many millions of people from the cruel grip of totalitarian communism, fanatical jihadism and secular dictatorships, is somehow the worlds greatest source of evil and conflict in the world.
Just come home, Paul has repeatedly intoned, echoing George McGoverns 1972 campaign slogan Come Home, America. A President Ron Paul would gut the nations defenses and homeland security as he carries out his promises to drastically cut military spending and to repeal what he has called the police state Patriot Act.
Its no surprise that the left-wing, anti-American Code Pink likes Pauls message. Code Pink activist Liz Hourican told FoxNews.com that the Ron Paul people are closer and closer to our talking points with each election.
Paul also has other friends on the hard Left such as Tom Hayden, who wrote:
Paul opposes the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. He opposes the empire of military bases. He opposes Wall Street thievery, tax subsidies for oil companies, the suppression of WikiLeaks, the drug war and the criminalization of marijuana. Those positions might just save America.
At the same time, Pauls message is in sync with that of the paleoconservative, Israel-hating isolationist Pat Buchanan. Consider, for example, their common perspective on 9/11. Buchanan said that Terrorism is the price of empire. They were over here because we were over there. Paul has attributed the al Qaeda attack to Americas interventionist actions in Muslim lands and to our support for Israel.
In a speech he delivered on the floor of the House of Representatives in January 2003, for example, Paul said:
We believe bin Laden when he takes credit for an attack on the West, and we believe him when he warns us of an impending attack, but we refuse to listen to his explanation of why he and his allies are at war with us. Bin Laden claims are straightforward. The U.S. defiles Islam with bases on the Holy Land and Saudi Arabia, its initiation of war against Iraq, with 12 years of persistent bombing, and its dollars and weapons being used against the Palestinians, as the Palestinian territory shrinks and Israels occupation expands.
As for Osama bin Laden, whom our Navy Seals dispatched last spring, Ron Paul criticized the one decision that Barack Obama got right. Paul said he would not have authorized the mission, arguing that killing bin Laden was unnecessary and that he has respect for the rule of law.
Ron Paul remains steadfast in denouncing U.S. foreign policy as one of occupation that justifies what he has referred to as the terrorists blowback response. During a CNN-Tea Party Republican presidential debate last September, for example, Paul stated that
were under great threat because we occupy so many countries We have to be honest with ourselves. What would we do if another country, say China, did to us what we do to all those countries over there?
Anti-American guru Noam Chomsky claimed that what Paul said was completely uncontroversial.
It may be uncontroversial to Chomsky, as well as to Pat Buchanan who thinks 9/11 was the price we paid for empire-building. But it is way out of the mainstream to most Americans.
As the New York Times put it in a front page article on December 26th about Ron Pauls campaign, Paul and his closest political allies have sought to forge a movement from the nether region of American politics, where the far right and the far left sometimes converge.
Ron Paul does not only attribute al Qaedas terrorist attacks to American foreign policy. He also blames America and Israel for frightening Iran into taking defensive actions to protect itself. When asked how he might deter Iran if it ever did pose a threat, Paul said maybe offering friendship to them.
While defending the terrorist-sponsoring Iranian regimes right to seek nuclear arms, he denies that Irans nuclear enrichment program is anything to worry about. He says there is no credible evidence that Iran is advancing towards achieving a nuclear bomb capability, despite a disturbing report to the contrary issued last month by the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The IAEA report found that there was information indicating Iran was conducting activities specific to nuclear weapons. The IAEA was particularly concerned about activities related to the development of a nuclear payload for a missile.
Nevertheless, in the face of such evidence, Paul asserted, were claiming that theyre gonna build a nuclear weapon and theres no evidence for this. Speaking directly to Rep. Michele Bachmann during the December 15th Fox News debate after she confronted him with the IAEA report regarding Irans progress towards nuclear weaponization, Paul said that the IAEA produced information that led you to believe that, but they have no evidence.
During the August 11, 2011 GOP presidential debate in Iowa, Paul tried to justify Irans aggressive posture towards the United States: We started it in 1953 when we sent in a coup, installed the Shah, and the reaction the blowback came in 1979. Its been going on and on because we just plain dont mind our own business. Thats our problem.
Paul went on during this same debate to treat Iran like a mama bear just trying to protect her cubs. He asked rhetorically, Why wouldnt it be natural that they might want a weapon? Internationally, theyd be given more respect.
During the Fox News debate on December 15th, Paul repeated his defense of Irans right to pursue a nuclear weapons capability and pointed to what happened to Muammar Qaddafi after he abandoned Libyas nuclear program:
So the fact that they are surrounded, they have a desire. And how do we treat people when they have a nuclear weapon? With a lot more respect. What did we do with Libya? We talked to them. We talked them out of their nuclear weapon. And then we killed them.
Appearing on the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones radio show earlier this month, Paul called allegations that Iran had attempted to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States a propaganda stunt of the Obama administration.
In fact, Paul has run interference in Congress for the Iranian Islamist regime for years so much so that Irans state television has run admiring stories about him under headlines such as Ron Paul Blasts U.S. Policy on Iran.
In 2005, for example, Paul was the only Republican lawmaker who refused to vote for a resolution condemning Irans President Ahmadinejad after he said Israel should be wiped off the map, and predicted that Like it or not, the Zionist regime is heading toward annihilation.
On June 19, 2009, the House voted to pass H Res 560 by a 405 to 1 margin, with Ron Paul casting the only vote in opposition. The resolution was entitled: Expressing support for all Iranian citizens who embrace the values of freedom, human rights, civil liberties, and rule of law, and for other purposes.
Paul opposes economic sanctions against the Iranian regime. In 2010, he led the opposition to the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability and Divestment Act. He explained his position to the House as follows:
I rise in strong opposition. I object to this entire push for war on Iran, however it is disguised. . . We need to see all this for what it is: Propaganda to speed us to war against Iran for the benefit of special interests. . . A vote for sanctions on Iran is a vote for war against Iran.
In Pauls mind, the special interests pushing for war against Iran include Israel. While he claimed in a recent interview with Newsmax that he was a friend of Israel, during a 2009 appearance on the Iranian government owned PressTV station he called Gaza a concentration camp, which he blamed on Israel, and criticized American foreign policy for blindly supporting Israel.
Earlier this year, Paul offered an amendment to cut off $6 billion in U.S. aid specifically to Israel and three other countries, lumping Israel with Pakistan.
Why do we have this automatic commitment that were going to send our kids and send our money endlessly to Israel? Paul asked in a November 22, 2011 Republican presidential debate on CNN.
Eric Dondero, Ron Pauls former senior aide, has written that Paul is uncategorically anti-Israel:
He wishes the Israeli state did not exist at all. He expressed this to me numerous times in our private conversations. His view is that Israel is more trouble than it is worth, specifically to the America taxpayer. He sides with the Palestinians, and supports their calls for the abolishment of the Jewish state, and the return of Israel, all of it, to the Arabs.
Such views and actions directed against Israel by Ron Paul are perfectly consistent with the Israel-bashing that has appeared in newsletters published under Pauls name and written in the first person over two decades. One of these jewels, dealing with the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, hypothesized that it might have been a setup by the Israeli Mossad.
Paul has disavowed any involvement in these newsletters racist, anti-Semitic content, as recently as last week during a heated CNN interview which Paul cut short in a huff. Nevertheless, Reuters is now reporting that a letter appearing to have been signed by Ron Paul himself has surfaced promoting the controversial newsletters. The letter states that as the only former high official to publish a financial letter, I supply facts and analysis available nowhere else. It goes on to boast that Ive laid bare, among other things, the Israeli lobby, which plays Congress like a cheap harmonica.
Is it any wonder that Ron Pauls campaign has appealed to anti-Semitic, white supremacists? When he ran for president in 2008, he received a donation from a prominent white supremacist and former Ku Klux Klan grandmaster. The campaign did not return the donation even after it was made aware of the donors neo-Nazi connections. Moreover, the Paul campaign did not remove a link from the white supremacist website, Stormfront, to a Ron Paul fundraising site from which prospective donors could click into the Ron Paul 2008 donation page on the official campaign site. Stormfront commentators continue to support Paul this time around, which the libertarian candidate has done little to discourage. While Paul claims to reject white supremacists extremists views, he does not reject their support. If they want to endorse me, theyre endorsing what I do or say it has nothing to do with endorsing what they say, Paul said.
It is tempting to treat Ron Paul like the kooky uncle whom you tolerate but try to ignore at family occasions. However, as he rises in the polls and could run a formidable campaign as an independent if he loses the GOP nomination, Pauls crackpot brand of Blame America, Excuse the Enemy foreign policy is far too dangerous to dismiss.
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Who was that other 'crackpot' who said "avoid foreign entanglements."?
They were astute elder statesmen that lived in a world WITHOUT nuclear weapons.
Paul stated that were under great threat because we occupy so many countries
Oh were it so, then perhaps we could have gotten something (like maybe preferential treatment towards all the oil Iraq has?) in exchange for all the Blood and Treasure we expended freeing the Iraqis from the Butcher of Baghdad?
If so, maybe we could have imposed by fiat, new Constitutions in Iraq and Af-gan which specifically forbade making Islam/Sharia the "Controlling Authority," like we did with Japan (and Shinto) after WWII?
Is there any Paul supporters here brave enough to man up and admit you are supporting this certifiable, lunatic? If so, would y'all be so kind as to edumacate this poor, ignorant, Right-Wing, Extremist, Clinger, exactly WHICH Country we have recently (or continue to) "OCCUPY?"
Exactly, and communications were considerably slower. In those days, avoiding "foreign entanglements" meant not getting involved in wars in the old country, months away from America.
Today, a terrorist can be equipped in Yemen and execute his/her mission in Rapid City, SD within three days.
It is a lot smaller world and it is still preferable to fight the bad guy over there rather than over here.
Ping...
You Paulitards are as clueless as your hero if you think the founding fathers wrote the Constitution as a suicide pact. Washington was a General and if you remember we even had French help in the revolution. You think in the 21st Century he would hole up and hide whilst our enemies drew their plans against us...
Here is a partial list of foreign military basees.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_military_bases
It’s a stretch to say we are “occupying” these countries of course, but do we need to have 140+ foreign bases to achieve our foreign policy goals? How about 12 more aircraft carriers, a couple dozen more subs and perfecting our hypersonic bomb capability?
This article is heavy on hearsay and rhetoric and basically just says that Ron Paul is naive/soft on Iran, is skeptical about the Bush administration/CIA motives and does not think the government has constitutional authority to take our tax dollarss and give them to another country.
Those are all points that should be debated and compared to his positions on the other 10 or so key platform statements and contrasted with our other so-called conservative choices.
Why thank you, I cannot begin to imagine how much more I would have accomplished if only I was half as smart as you think you are.
we would be wise to go back to what they said, did and wrote.
It is no stretch to realize that if I was half as smart as I thought I was I am still 10 times smarter than any given Paulitard, unless of course they too support Iran blowing up their fellow Americans on purpose, then they are just traitorous scum.
So where do you fall...
And I also note you didn't (or can't) address my point...
Your points are so arsine they are not worth addressing.
But let me suggest this to you, unless you are trying to alienate Paul supporters as a democrat worker, you might want to remember the old adage, "You catch more bees with honey..." Starting to seem to me that all of the campaigns other than Rick S's would rather not have Ron Paul supporters votes in the General.
As far as “alienating” Paul supporters as “democratic worker” (sheesh if I had a dollar) since his positions are the democratic ones, his supporters come from OWS, druggies and Code Pink as well as the outer reaches of the Libertarian barrel, people not interested in our nations security as long as they have their pot or free money, exactly what is being “Alienated”...
...Maybe you should take a breath, and listen to reasons other than let's blow up the world and rebuild it in your image of perfection. That or go back to your hero worship of whomever. I'll leave off the personal attacks. See ya later, maybe.
1. Prior to European meddling in the middle east (circa 1910, Jews lived all over the middle east in peace. (Check out GERTRUDE BELL, THE DESERT QUEEN.) Both jews and arabs were promised the land where Israel is today. This is the base for the current muslim hate for jews.
2. The US already tried to suppress knowledge of how to build a nuclear weapon. It didn’t work. Russia, China, France, North Korea, India and Pakistan all reportedly have had nuclear weapons. Yet in over 55 years, the US is the only nation to have used a nuclear weapon on another country. (BTW, Pakistan is a muslim country.)
I once tried debating with them. Realized how stupid I was for even trying.
As far as personal attacks, I lay off those who reason and share my views and even those that differ from me but apporach with reason as well.
Dumb-ass is mild compared to what I really think.
I have listen to all I need to hear from Paul and his supporters.
I once tried debating with them. Realized how stupid I was for even trying.
As far as personal attacks, I lay off those who reason and share my views and even those that differ from me but apporach with reason as well.
But when it comes to crazy bastards and their sycophants who have no qualms in radical Muslim nations that have the ability to orbit satellites being well on their way to nuclear weapons, weapons that could fall on my family (something I find is a very personal attack)...
Dumb-ass is mild compared to what I really think.
...We can agree on that one point, but from different direction. The fact that I read these threads, for some reasons, I don't respond anymore because of the invective and lack of FR standards on civility. I was pinged to this thread without knowing why, I won't do that again.
...We can agree to differ on this issue, but, maybe agree on others. Have a nice day.
...Have a nice day.
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