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by now you know that Im a Ron Paul supporter. you may also know that Ron Paul is opposed
to the Iraq war (and has been from the beginning) because he is opposed to all [unprovoked]
wars in other countries, and is in favor of a strong defense [the Iraq war was not provoked
by Iraq or Iraqis, it was an act of terrorism - though who those terrorists are or where
they live is something I'll leave for another day]. an interesting question came up recently:
if it werent for countries helping other countries win wars, if it werent for the help we were
given from France and Spain, we would never have won our independence from Britain! so
why shouldnt we help other countries in the same way?
well, for one thing, France and Spain only helped us out because they were already fighting
Britain, and wanted to force the war to a third front. so it was strategic. but the
contemporary short of it is America must remove the log in its own eye before trying to impose
our will on and fix other countries. our country right now is spiralling out of control (and
has been for decades). our money should be focused on one thing: making the united States
a better nation.
there are no
doubt civil injustices, dark circumstances, cold-blooded murders, happening across the
world. many Americans feel a strong moral obligation to fix those problems. but one
must ask, why wouldnt the people of that land take arms? if a tyrannical state started imposing
itself on Americans, wouldnt (shouldnt) we fight for our freedom, to the death, instead
of depending on another nation? there will always be fighting between nations or peoples,
but whenever we get involved it weakens us financially and militarily as a whole. the
US is not crowned (nor should it be) the adjudicator or policeman of the world.
apart from that, I stay true to the traditional libertarian view as it applies to most issues:
the more power we give to our govt, the more they will screw things up, the more corruption
takes root, the more abuse occurs. look at the Iraq War. we (may have) had good intentions,
but now a lot of Iraqi citizens hate
the US because they are imprisoned or killed trivially, and we are seen as imperialists
(which we are). and Halliburton/KBR are making a fat paycheck.
I would also point out that staying out of other countries political affairs is not isolationism,
it is non-interventionism; isolationism includes non-interventionism as well as protectionism
(economic isolationism), something RP does not support. we should seek to trade freely
and to seek peace and prosperity with other nations; we should be the friend of the world,
not the enemy.
We have a lot of goodness in this country, and we should promote it; but never through
the barrel of a gun.
- Ron Paul