Posted on 01/09/2012 9:51:16 AM PST by mnehring
I’ll bet you’ve never personally performed open heart surgery. You haven’t? Really? In that case, I don’t want your stinkin’ opinion on how the government should best distort the health insurance markets with artificial incentives. You probably also haven’t dropped acid in the last ten years. Given that painful deficiency on your CV, I don’t want to hear any of your sanctimonious blithering about The War on Drugs.
I assume, furthermore, that you’ve never been behind enemy lines, staggering home through the bad guys’ wire with your small intestine in one your canteen cups.* If such is the case; then you, like Newt Gingrich, have no right to have an opinion on issues of international military involvements.
So argues Dr. Ron Paul, who has the unique moral authority to decide whether John Huntsman really has American values. As Devine Emperor of Truth and Logic; Dr. Paul hath (self)-righteously decreed that Newt Gingrich has no right to an opinion on matters of war and peace.
“I think people who don’t serve when they could and they get three or four or even five deferments aren’t — they have no right to send our kids off to war, and not be even against the wars that we have, (My bolding)” Paul, a former Air Force flight surgeon, said. “I’m trying to stop the wars. But at least, you know, I went when they called me up.”
– Congressman Ron Paul.
The entire reason people serve in the US Military is to defend and uphold the US Constitution. The entire reason that politicians and their enemies make arguments based upon “Chicken-Hawking” is to deprive people who have not been under enemy fire, of the right to participate in the vital national conversation involving war and peace. It’s a way for great and courageous defenders of the US Constitution like Dr. Ron Paul to strip others of their rights under the 1st Amendment.
This would make Dr. Paul a smug and arrogant elitist pig. He is as revolting on the issues of war and peace as President Obama is with regards to social issues. It makes me think that Dr. Paul is a bitter clinger who desperately holds on to his 9-11 Conspiracy Theories and his Racist literature and his proposed Fed audit.
As one who wore the uniform briefly, I can understand a teaspoon’s measure of Ron Paul’s frustration over the civilian leadership of the armed forces. It has to be one of the more vexing aspects of the entire US Constitution when Von Clausewitz of the 9-11 LIHOP Theories ponders the document. But that’s exactly the point. You and I don’t have to like Mr. Gingrich’s resume on military issues in order for him to have a right to express his views.
Ultimately, “Chicken Hawking” is the revolting logical inverse of the argument that a former military person would make a great foreign policy president. I doubt there is a single opponent of the Iraq War who spent all of 2005 thinking “Ya know what? I don’t like this whole Iraq War thing. However, George W. Bush and John McCain have landed fighter jets on an aircraft carrier before. Based upon that, I have no valid point of view on whether the GOP has a correct policy via-avis the Iraq War.”
That’s the astonishing thing about the entire “Chicken Hawk” branch of logical fallacy. Not a single practitioner of it will ever admit that a more experienced member of the military that holds a diametrically opposed point of view on some defense-related issue has a God-Given right to serve the Ron Pauls of the world a big, steaming cup of STFU. This situation sends them appealing to all-important bastions of authority like Gen Wesley Clark.
Thus, Ron Paul’s use of the “Chicken Hawk” smear to demean one of his opponents in the GOP Primary reminds me of what is wrong with American Democracy. Here we have a former military member, sworn to uphold and defend the US Constitution, attempting to deprive an opponent of his right to speak based on pure CV snobbery. This is not courageous libertarian constitutionalism. It is post-modern feudalism instead. Elitist Pigs like Ron Paul, who use their resumes and life experiences as a weapon to silence the points of view they don’t want to hear, are an enemy of American Democracy.
* – If any members of our rich and vibrant RS community have done all three, than what in the heck are you doing wasting time on the Internet? Get out there and fix all the world’s problems!
Ron Paul: On a mission from Soros.
or
Ron Paul: The New LaRouche
This blows up the myth that Ron Paul was “drafted” into the Air Force: http://stevebussey.com/wp/2011/12/did-ron-paul-lie-about-being-drafted/
Just need the scary one...
Ron Paul is from the governemnt and he is here to help.
Flip a coin!
When did we start calling a resume a CV?
That’s European, no?
So how did he get into the Air Force? Or is lying when he claims he served in the Air Force from 63-68?
Paul makes me nauseous. He is just a VILE and despicable old man, who should know better. No way would I EVER want him to diagnose me for anything. HE IS CERTIFIABLY CRAZY.
Since it is the President is the Commander and Chief of the military, I agree with Paul in the case of the President, only. Our Presidents should have military experience. Had we respected that qualifing standard, we would not have the vapid anti-American Muslim in the White House who has mandated homosexuality on the military.
What the Paulestians say could be turned around and said about Paul. Those who have been warriors have no right to shout down the military and claim to be peaceful. It is mindless sloganeering of leftists that Paul’s supporters engage in. In the name of being anti-war, they make pets out of America’s most ravishing enemies.
They pretend Mulsims are innocent when they have been conducting terrorism against the US for decades before 911. They also pretend Islam are not the enemy and to be cagey, they advocate for the government to target other Americans as domestic terrorists so as not to discriminate against their best pals, the Muslims. Which is funny, since Homeland inSecurity has expanded the meaning of domestic terrorist to target the Paulestians.
He volunteered. He lied about being drafted just like he lied about Newt’s deferments.
Couldn’t agree more. This is ad hominem fallacy at its purest, and I’m dismayed that Dr. Paul who purports to place ideas above personality/behavior should stoop so low. Is it a character-determinant? I don’t think so. If it were, we’d have to start differentiating those who served during wartime from those who served in peacetime, those who served in combat-zones vs. those who served noncombat. And the list could go on—those with more responsibility vs those with less, volunteers vs. draftees. We’d end up with evals that made Wesley Clark or John Kerry a hero and Alvin York a shirker.
I think he probably said he was drafted into the Air Force...or did he just say drafted...if he was an MD, he would likely have been given options such as the option to join the Air Force as a flight surgeon. He was a Captain in the Air Force so he either was drafted or he volunteered
I agree that not having served should not reflect at all on the validity of a person's foreign policy views but as a purely political matter...I think Newt probably looked bad to most undecided voters when he started talking about being an army brat. He should have said exactly what this article says
After he finished with his education, Paul was drafted and Paul requested to go into the Air force instead of the Army, Paul served in the Air Force as a doctor from 1963 to 1963, he was then probably transferred to the Guard, although he claims it as an “enlistment”.
He went into the AF as a way to avoid being drafted into the Army. The AF has never had a draft.
So, basically, Mr. Paul is being less than forthcoming about the details of what really went down re: his drafting.
So the author is pro Obama as commander in chief of our armed forces.
He concurs with Obama that our military should be led by foreign commanders and that they should follow the eurosocialist NATO rules of engagement for American soldiers in Afghanistan to not win, not to shoot and not to protect themselves.
He concurs that America hater Obama should send you, your spouse or your children to a war which was declared by George Bush to last for 30 years (how he figured out how long the war is going to last is a mystery but he said it).
Yeah, he just said he was drafted—which, technically that is true, he did receive a draft notice. He just never followed through with that notice, heh.
How do you know that?
Because apparently the AF has never done drafts.
Though he may’ve been given a choice—i.e., go into the AF as a flight surgeon, or go into the Army as a private.
Ron Paul is a Medical Doctor. At that level they do NOT have “Resumes” they have CVs(Curriculum Vitae).
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curriculum_vitae
If that's what Paul said, then I'll take him at his word. Just like I'll take Newt at his word when he says that he never asked for a deferment. This is what I hate about politics...the country is heading off a cliff into 3rd worldism economically and these candidates are wasting time on the question of Newt's service or lack of service... 40 YEARS AGO!
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