Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Rand Paul: Romney's wrong on Middle East, defense spending
CNN ^ | October 10, 2012 | Senator Rand Paul

Posted on 10/10/2012 2:39:57 PM PDT by Colonel Kangaroo

This week, I will campaign for Gov. Mitt Romney. I believe this election will and should be about moving America back from the edge of the abyss on which we stand, where our debt and spending threaten to overwhelm and drown us. Romney's belief in free markets, limited government and trade make him the clear choice to lead our country come January.

I do not, however, support a call for intervention in Syria. And, if such intervention were being contemplated, it is absolutely necessary that Congress give any such authority to the president. No president, Republican or Democrat, has the unilateral power to take our nation to war without the authority of the legislature.

At times, I have been encouraged by Romney's foreign policy. I agree with his call to end the war in Afghanistan sooner rather than later and with his skepticism of, and call for reform in, foreign aid, but I am a bit dismayed by his foreign policy speech Monday, titled "Mantle of Leadership."

Sen. Rand PaulRomney chose to criticize President Obama for seeking to cut a bloated Defense Department and for not being bellicose enough in the Middle East, two assertions with which I cannot agree.

Defense and war spending has grown 137% since 2001. That kind of growth is not sustainable...

(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: 2012issues; libertarians; randpaul; romney2012
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-76 next last
To: rbmillerjr

Rand’s right.


21 posted on 10/10/2012 3:11:55 PM PDT by Timber Rattler (Just say NO! to RINOS and the GOP-E)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Colonel Kangaroo

Until they explode a nuke here. And they will.


22 posted on 10/10/2012 3:12:03 PM PDT by Andrei Bulba (No Obama, no way!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: rbmillerjr

Bankrupt nations can’t pay for a military structure larger than the rest of the non-bankrupt world combined.


23 posted on 10/10/2012 3:14:20 PM PDT by LowTaxesEqualsProsperity
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: rbmillerjr

peace through strength is the right idea. Peace through poverty, not so much. It is possible to be more efficient and not have a “wimpy” foreign policy. The idea that questioning a military budget alone makes you an appeaser is nonsensical.


24 posted on 10/10/2012 3:14:45 PM PDT by wiseprince
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Colonel Kangaroo

The nut never falls very far from the tree.


25 posted on 10/10/2012 3:17:27 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: PGR88

Again, this is crazy. Their is no need to topple the Syrian government. Picking sides is a crazy policy in this case. At the very least fight on both sides and prolong the battle but picking a side and toppling the government is an absolutely horrid policy


26 posted on 10/10/2012 3:18:32 PM PDT by wiseprince
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Colonel Kangaroo

Your opinion, I disagree. We can become energy independent and maintain a robust military both. That is not to say there is not waste. But I remember being at Fort Hood over 40 years ago and infantry units not shooting live rounds for a year at a time or being able to repair tanks that were dead lined because of budgetary considerations. This resulted in the fiasco in the desert under Carter after I had ets’d. Never again comes to mind.


27 posted on 10/10/2012 3:20:11 PM PDT by jwalsh07
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: Colonel Kangaroo

This is the son of a man who blames the US for the attacks on 9/11 through “blowback.”


28 posted on 10/10/2012 3:22:44 PM PDT by NoobRep
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: rbmillerjr

In reading Rand’s article it does offer a contradiction. If Romney can demonstrate to the Congress he is arming the right factions, then under Rand’s own criteria, this would be acceptable. I am not opposed to arming Rebels in Syria as long as they are friendly to the US and that they seize power after Assad is toppled. In fact, such a Regime would tilt the balance of power in the mid-east for 30 years. Then somehow, we need to get back into Iraq and contain the Shia as we did before Obama pulled out.


29 posted on 10/10/2012 3:29:15 PM PDT by 11th Commandment (http://www.thirty-thousand.org/)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Colonel Kangaroo

Just a republican doing a democrats work for them....Republicans need to shut up until after the election...This guy must love Obama, he’s in the wrong party...


30 posted on 10/10/2012 3:42:30 PM PDT by goat granny
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Colonel Kangaroo

Again, not one word has been mentioned so far of the jihad that is being weighed against America but it is only the economy that is continuously in the limelight.

Don’t these guys know that when sharia is established that all their economic planning is like p*ssing in the wind?


31 posted on 10/10/2012 3:45:11 PM PDT by 353FMG (The US Constitution is only as effective as those who enforce it.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Timber Rattler

Yep. Which is why he will be ignored. For over a century, this country stayed out of everyone else’s business and it did, indeed, work. What some naively term isolationism is actually a wiser course than this silly police action mentality.


32 posted on 10/10/2012 3:57:42 PM PDT by arderkrag (An Unreconstructed Georgian, Forever in Rebellion.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

Rand Paul is no less of a loon than his drooling dad.

27 days before the election and this dipstick thinks it’s his turn to be heard.... he’s an idiot!


33 posted on 10/10/2012 4:04:25 PM PDT by Gator113 (I would have voted for NEWT, now it's Ryan and the other guy.~Just livin' life, my way~)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Rand Paul is no less of a loon than his drooling dad.

27 days before the election and this dipstick thinks it’s his turn to be heard.... he’s an idiot!


34 posted on 10/10/2012 4:04:31 PM PDT by Gator113 (I would have voted for NEWT, now it's Ryan and the other guy.~Just livin' life, my way~)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Colonel Kangaroo

“Damning with faint praise”.


35 posted on 10/10/2012 4:10:20 PM PDT by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Gator113
27 days before the election and this dipstick thinks it’s his turn to be heard.... he’s an idiot!

*************************************

He claims to be campaigning for Romney, yet he uses this opportunity to talk about his own opinions and beliefs. He's duplicitous.

36 posted on 10/10/2012 4:15:55 PM PDT by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: Timber Rattler; rbmillerjr
Rand’s right.

Yup.

And for you spectators, there are no nuts in the Paul family tree.

37 posted on 10/10/2012 4:23:37 PM PDT by elkfersupper ( Member of the Original Defiant Class)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: allmendream

Nonsense. The Afghanistan adventure has exhausted our troops and their families.


38 posted on 10/10/2012 4:42:19 PM PDT by Theophilus (Not merely prolife, but prolific)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: allmendream

Nonsense. The Afghanistan adventure has exhausted our troops and their families.


39 posted on 10/10/2012 4:42:31 PM PDT by Theophilus (Not merely prolife, but prolific)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Theophilus

It has trained them in the terrain and against the foes our nation will need them to fight. While overdeployment can be a problem, it simply means we need to recruit more troops. So far recruitment and retainment has not been a problem.


40 posted on 10/10/2012 5:24:54 PM PDT by allmendream (Tea Party did not send GOP to D.C. to negotiate the terms of our surrender to socialism)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-76 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson