December 05, 2007 News+Opinion » Jack Hunter

Ron Paul's Republican War 

Alone among GOP candidates, Ron Paul speaks the truth about foreign policy

by Jack Hunter
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"If we don't stop extending our troops all around the world in nation-building missions, then we're going to have a serious problem coming down the road."

George W. Bush, Oct. 3, 2000

Many Republicans honestly believe that above all else, our war in Iraq is a necessary and just war and that U.S. presence overseas is crucial to preventing another 9/11. Nothing could be further from the truth. And it is this great divide in opinion on the war that has put Texas Congressman Ron Paul on the map.

During a GOP presidential debate in May, Paul suggested that the continuing U.S. presence overseas led to 9/11, to which former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani replied, "That's really an extraordinary statement ... I don't think I've heard that before, and I've heard some pretty absurd explanations for September 11."

And in a sense Giuliani is right. Most Americans haven't heard this explanation before. If you're a Republican, you likely listen to talk radio, where fellow Republicans support their Republican president by supporting his war. Few serious questions asked.

These conservatives who in the 1990s criticized President Bill Clinton for trying to snake his way out of perjury charges by questioning the definition of the word "is," now find themselves using the same double-talk by insisting that Saddam Hussein had links to Osama bin Laden or that there really were weapons of mass destruction. Even Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney now deny they ever tried to make these connections.

When it comes to the dangers of American empire, Paul has been proven 100 percent correct, and President Bush and the entire Republican establishment have been proven 100 percent wrong. As Paul predicted as early as 1997 in a letter to President Clinton, "Policy toward Iraq is ... not designed to protect U.S. national security. It is instead a threat to our security because it may lead to war and loss of American lives, increase terrorism, and certainly an additional expense for the U.S. taxpayer. The hyped rhetoric coming from Washington which describes Hussein as the only evil monster with which we must deal in the world is a poor substitute for wise counsel."

When it comes to why the U.S. was attacked on 9/11, the former head of the CIA's bin Laden unit Michael Scheuer validates Paul. As he told CNN, "We're being attacked for what we do in the Islamic world, not for who we are or what we believe in or how we live."

The 9/11 Commission Report also validates the claim that U.S. foreign intervention facilitated 9/11. Furthermore, it demolishes the childish fantasy-land idea that we were attacked simply because terrorists "hate our freedom," a notion that every single Republican presidential candidate subscribes to — except Ron Paul.

If American presence on Islamic soil is what originally led to 9/11, does anyone honestly believe our nation-building missions in Iraq, Afghanistan, and possibly Iran make us safer? Bush in 2000 certainly didn't think so.

But if Bush in 2007 is right that America must fight the terrorists "over there" so that we don't have to fight them "over here," then which country do you believe is more at risk for another 9/11, the United States or Canada? Most Canadians would likely agree their comparative "isolationism" has served them well.

It's time for a new, saner American foreign policy or as Constitutional lawyer Bruce Fein recently wrote in The Washington Times: "Nonintervention and global neutrality should be the national security creed of the United States. Its contemporary leaders ... create more enemies than they destroy. The global military projection of the United States as imperative to national security has become mainstream gospel. But as Bertrand Russell advised, 'In all affairs, it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.'"

If Bush's and the Republican establishment's ongoing mythology about the causes of 9/11 and the necessity of foreign wars has even an inkling of truth behind it, then Ron Paul really would be the lunatic that Giuliani tried to paint him as during the debate last May.

At that time, some Republicans were even trying to get Paul the heretic thrown out of any future debates. But as Pat Buchanan wrote: "[Up] on that stage in Columbia, (Ron Paul) was speaking intolerable truths. Understandably, Republicans do not want him back, telling the country how the party blundered into this misbegotten war. By all means, throw out of the debate the only man who was right from the beginning on Iraq."

There's an old saying that hindsight is 20/20. Alone amongst Republicans, Ron Paul's foresight has been 20/20, while each of his fellow presidential contenders continues to toe the party line and stick their heads in the sand, afraid and unwilling to confront the imminent danger before us.

Catch Southern Avenger commentaries every Tuesday and Friday at 7:50 a.m. on the "Morning Buzz with Richard Todd" on 1250 AM WTMA.

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Excellent op-ed! I wish you were in Oklahoma City. Charles Key

Posted by ckey on December 11, 2007 at 11:14 AM | Report this comment

"Most Canadians would likely agree their comparative 'isolationism' has served them well." Canada? That's the best example you have? You DO know Canada has troops in Afghanistan, right? Also, anyone with even a passing familiarity with UN peacekeeping operations worldwide knows Canada is heavily involved in those as well. Incidentally, Canada also has a continuing problem with home-grown jihadist groups, as seen last year when Canadian police arrested 17 people plotting terror attacks in Ontario. Trouble in the "non-interventionist" paradise, I guess.

Posted by MarsVsHollywood on December 10, 2007 at 7:00 PM | Report this comment

Hopefully Paul will follow the path of Gandhi: "First they ignore you, then they insult you, then they fight you and you win!"

Posted by Bily Ray on December 7, 2007 at 5:06 PM | Report this comment

Lets say it is true that we are hated by terrorists for our freedom, wealth and way of life. The cost of war is the loss of liberties, loss of wealth and inevitable change of society and its traditions. Anyone who wants to preserve the American way will not enter in war so carelessly. I think it is our beloved representatives in government that hates the American people because they are rich and free. After all, they are the greatest culprits in the loss of American liberty and wealth.

Posted by Daniel23 on December 7, 2007 at 2:12 PM | Report this comment

DAWN OF THE AMERICAN REFORMATION, AND END OF THE ERA OF THE UGLY AMERICAN This Ron Paul Libertarian rebellion is an escalation and re-orientation of the American Cultural War, by the American People, against the rising governmental tyranny by Neo-Con Republicans and Neo-Lib Democrats. It is sweeping across America like a wildfire - ignited by the illegal and unnecessary invasion of Iraq. It raises many crucial questions, such as: Where does the American Constitution give my government the right to sacrifice precious American wealth and blood, in interests of domestic and foreign lobbies? Where does the American Constitution give my government the right to allow my nation to be invaded and permanently occupied by illegal aliens? Where does the American Constitution give my government the right to support the sacrificial killing of children, by their own mothers? Where does the American Constitution give my government the right to discriminate against traditional religious practices in public schools, universities, marriage institutions, armed forces, and governmental offices? This creeping governmental tyranny, driven by perverse special interests, has now been going on for so many decades, like the illegal alien invasion, that the impending American Reformation is regarded with fear and loathing, by those who are to lose their illicit gains. Like Gandhi, Ron Paul is drawing his intrepid volunteers from the full spectrum of humanity; and World is cheering him on to victory.

Posted by Jeugenen on December 7, 2007 at 1:06 PM | Report this comment

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