Republicans Debate
Texas Republican Congressman Ron Paul distinguished himself at the Reagan Library GOP presidential debate by defending the Constitution and opposing the war in Iraq.
The moderator asked: “Congressman Paul, you voted against the war. Why are all your fellow Republicans up here wrong?”
Rep. Paul replied: “That's a very good question. And you might ask the question, why are 70 percent of the American people now wanting us out of there, and why did the Republicans do so poorly last year?
In both debates, Dr. Paul pointed out: "I think the party has lost its way, because the conservative wing of the Republican Party always advocated a noninterventionist foreign policy. Senator Robert Taft didn't even want to be in NATO. George Bush won the election in the year 2000 campaigning on a humble foreign policy –no nation-building, no policing of the world. Republicans were elected to end the Korean War. The Republicans were elected to end the Vietnam War. There's a strong tradition of being anti-war in the Republican party. It is the constitutional position. It is the advice of the Founders to follow a non-interventionist foreign policy, stay out of entangling alliances, be friends with countries, negotiate and talk with them and trade with them.
"So I would suggest that we should look at foreign policy. I'm suggesting very strongly that we should have a foreign policy of nonintervention, the traditional American foreign policy and the Republican foreign policy.
During the second debate, Rudy Giuliani angrily responded to a remark Rep. Paul made about 9/11. Giuliani claimed: “That's an extraordinary statement, as someone who lived through the attack of September 11th, that we invited the attack because we were attacking Iraq. I don't think I've ever heard that before and I've heard some pretty absurd explanations for September 11th.”
Both the CIA and the 9/11 Commission reports agree with Rep. Paul, that the reason we were attacked on 9/11, had to do with our troops in Saudi Arabia, which is considered holy land, as well, as 10 years of bombing and sanctions. Sanctions, which resulted in shortages of medicine and food and hundreds of people dying. Ron Paul questions: “If somebody did that to us, would we be angry?”
Rep. Paul blames bad policy, by both Clinton and Bush for 9/11. He insists Americans have a right and an obligation to challenge and change detrimental policy. Obviously, Rudy Giuliani resent any dissent, discussion or arguments about our present stay the course policy. Paul wasn’t intimidated by suggestions, that he was blaming America and is therefore unpatriotic.
After the second debate Rep. Paul was asked: “What would you do about the al Qaeda threat to the United States?”
Paul responded: “We voted for the money and yet we ignored it. So this is my complaint, that we didn't do what we were supposed to do and we went and started a war that we shouldn't have.
“And we have Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. They have a nuclear weapon. They have a military dictatorship. They overthrew an elected government. And what do we do when they get nuclear weapons? We reward them. We give them money... So it's natural for the leadership in Iran to want to get a nuclear weapon, because we respect people that have power and we disrespect people that we think we can run over them and run roughshod over their countries, invade them preemptively and change their regimes.”
The moderator asked: “Congressman Paul, you voted against the war. Why are all your fellow Republicans up here wrong?”
Rep. Paul replied: “That's a very good question. And you might ask the question, why are 70 percent of the American people now wanting us out of there, and why did the Republicans do so poorly last year?
In both debates, Dr. Paul pointed out: "I think the party has lost its way, because the conservative wing of the Republican Party always advocated a noninterventionist foreign policy. Senator Robert Taft didn't even want to be in NATO. George Bush won the election in the year 2000 campaigning on a humble foreign policy –no nation-building, no policing of the world. Republicans were elected to end the Korean War. The Republicans were elected to end the Vietnam War. There's a strong tradition of being anti-war in the Republican party. It is the constitutional position. It is the advice of the Founders to follow a non-interventionist foreign policy, stay out of entangling alliances, be friends with countries, negotiate and talk with them and trade with them.
"So I would suggest that we should look at foreign policy. I'm suggesting very strongly that we should have a foreign policy of nonintervention, the traditional American foreign policy and the Republican foreign policy.
During the second debate, Rudy Giuliani angrily responded to a remark Rep. Paul made about 9/11. Giuliani claimed: “That's an extraordinary statement, as someone who lived through the attack of September 11th, that we invited the attack because we were attacking Iraq. I don't think I've ever heard that before and I've heard some pretty absurd explanations for September 11th.”
Both the CIA and the 9/11 Commission reports agree with Rep. Paul, that the reason we were attacked on 9/11, had to do with our troops in Saudi Arabia, which is considered holy land, as well, as 10 years of bombing and sanctions. Sanctions, which resulted in shortages of medicine and food and hundreds of people dying. Ron Paul questions: “If somebody did that to us, would we be angry?”
Rep. Paul blames bad policy, by both Clinton and Bush for 9/11. He insists Americans have a right and an obligation to challenge and change detrimental policy. Obviously, Rudy Giuliani resent any dissent, discussion or arguments about our present stay the course policy. Paul wasn’t intimidated by suggestions, that he was blaming America and is therefore unpatriotic.
After the second debate Rep. Paul was asked: “What would you do about the al Qaeda threat to the United States?”
Paul responded: “We voted for the money and yet we ignored it. So this is my complaint, that we didn't do what we were supposed to do and we went and started a war that we shouldn't have.
“And we have Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. They have a nuclear weapon. They have a military dictatorship. They overthrew an elected government. And what do we do when they get nuclear weapons? We reward them. We give them money... So it's natural for the leadership in Iran to want to get a nuclear weapon, because we respect people that have power and we disrespect people that we think we can run over them and run roughshod over their countries, invade them preemptively and change their regimes.”
1 Comments:
You ROCK!!!
If everyone was as informed as you, our country wouldn't be in the dire situation it's in.
Keep up the good fight.
Post a Comment
<< Home