Word on the street is that Ron Paul’s speech on the Iraq war blasted Bush unlike no other. Paul is supporting the non-binding resolution to support the troops and oppose the escalation of the Iraq war. Beyond that, Paul is in favor of ending the Iraq war now.
Here’s the text of the speech. Video of the speech is here. Of note:
The biggest red herring in this debate is the constant innuendo that those who don’t support expanding the war are somehow opposing the troops. It’s nothing more than a canard to claim that those of us who struggled to prevent the bloodshed and now want it stopped are somehow less patriotic and less concerned about the welfare of our military personnel.
Osama bin Laden has expressed sadistic pleasure with our invasion of Iraq and was surprised that we served his interests above and beyond his dreams on how we responded after the 9/11 attacks. His pleasure comes from our policy of folly getting ourselves bogged down in the middle of a religious civil war, 7,000 miles from home that is financially bleeding us to death. Total costs now are reasonably estimated to exceed $2 trillion. His recruitment of Islamic extremists has been greatly enhanced by our occupation of Iraq.
Unfortunately, we continue to concentrate on the obvious mismanagement of a war promoted by false information and ignore debating the real issue which is: Why are we determined to follow a foreign policy of empire building and pre-emption which is unbecoming of a constitutional republic?
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The catch-all phrase, “War on Terrorism”, in all honesty, has no more meaning than if one wants to wage a war against criminal gangsterism. It’s deliberately vague and non definable to justify and permit perpetual war anywhere, and under any circumstances. Don’t forget: the Iraqis and Saddam Hussein had absolutely nothing to do with any terrorist attack against us including that on 9/11.
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For all the misinformation given the American people to justify our invasion, such as our need for national security, enforcing UN resolutions, removing a dictator, establishing a democracy, protecting our oil, the argument has been reduced to this: If we leave now Iraq will be left in a mess-implying the implausible that if we stay it won’t be a mess.Since it could go badly when we leave, that blame must be placed on those who took us there, not on those of us who now insist that Americans no longer need be killed or maimed and that Americans no longer need to kill any more Iraqis. We’ve had enough of both!
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We all know, in time, the war will be de-funded one way or another and the troops will come home. So why not now? [Emphasis added]
Ron Paul: liberals love him today and I’m one of them.
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3 Responses to “Ron Paul Blasts Bush, GOP”
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I also think many traditional conservatives and pro-life advocates and Catholics who look at his long record in Congress including supporting States’ rights to decide many issues on their own will embrace Dr. Paul’s candidacy for the Republican nomination for President.
Left by C.R.
February 23, 2007 at 8:00pm