Posted on 08/16/2021 4:18:40 PM PDT by RandFan
After America was attacked by al-Qaeda on September 11, 2001, my father, Republican Congressman Ron Paul, voted for a U.S. strike on the Taliban in Afghanistan for harboring the 9/11 terrorists.
We were attacked, so we struck back. This is the reason we have and need a strong military: Actual national defense.
But our military is not meant for nation building. Not for policing the world. Not for imposing democracy in places that have never known it.
Not only are these bad ideas, but they aren’t the point of our military and they do nothing for our national defense.
Unfortunately, that was the George W. Bush-Dick Cheney neoconservative vision of perpetual U.S.-led wars around the globe. We know how that worked out in Iraq. Now we are learning how it ends in Afghanistan.
But this isn’t hindsight.
It was always doomed for failure, and some have said so for a very long time, and proved right time and time again through our recent foreign policy disasters.
It was my father, often alone in his party, who said for decades that the neocons’ endless wars would always come back to haunt us.
He did it early, and often. Over the weekend, a video compilation of warnings my Dad issued years ago went viral. Why was a 13-year-old video of a Congressman who retired in 2012 going viral?
Because he was right and more people should have listened to him, to me and to others who have been saying for a decade that this war needed to end.
Ron Paul asked questions like, “What if occupying countries like Iraq and Afghanistan and bombing Pakistan is directly related to the hatred directed toward us?” The scenes we see coming out of Afghanistan today are rage-filled. We honor and respect the brave men and women who served there for so long, but to ask them to stay another year there would be unconscionable. They did their duty.
“What if all wartime spending is paid for through the deceitful process of inflating and borrowing?” Dad asked. Considering that we were never able to afford the trillions spent in Afghanistan and we are now more concerned about inflation at home, Dad seemed ahead of his time.
My father asked, “What if we finally see that wartime conditions always undermine personal liberty?” Thanks to whistleblower Edward Snowden, we have a clearer picture of how our government abuses our constitutional liberties every day, often using post-9/11 jargon to justify it.
And again, on Afghanistan, my father had long urged to bring American troops home after the U.S. accomplished its original mission early on.
If the neoconservatives and others at the time had listened to Ron Paul back then, the tragedy in Afghanistan would not have been prolonged. Most importantly, it would have saved thousands of American lives and also money that we don’t actually have.
During the Tea Party-era ten years ago, I and other libertarian-leaning Republicans followed in my father’s footsteps and managed to change some formerly hawkish minds about war. When Donald Trump became president by blasting the Bush administration’s interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan and condemning “endless wars,” Dad’s foreign policy message had come full circle within the GOP.
Yet, if the Republican Party had been more like Ron Paul than Dick Cheney throughout the aughts, it would have saved our country a lot of heartache. If Barack Obama had actually ended the wars he promised too, like Dad had long urged, we would have been better off.
Now the same people who still defend the Iraq War and who also wanted to stay in Afghanistan forever are some of the loudest voices criticizing the Taliban retaking control of that country. If after 20 years of preparing Afghanistan to govern itself, it immediately bends to extremists the moment we leave, what did hawks think we were going to accomplish over another decade—or ever? Was two decades not enough time?
The fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban is sad but the blame should attach to the naive neocons who thought they could create a Jeffersonian democracy in a land clinging to the Stone Age, not to those who warned that it would inevitably end in a mess.
What’s clear today is that no one with the last name Cheney should even be speaking publicly right now. This origin of this debacle lies at their feet.
What’s even clearer, is that unfortunately the warnings of a Republican congressman from Texas years ago now feel more prescient than ever.
Rand Paul is a Republican senator from Kentucky
Somebody had to get us out of this mess, sounds familiar; but Joe, of course, was the wrong guy to run the operation. I get it, Rand, we had no business being there etc., etc. and so on...But, unfortunately Joe was the guy who was tasked with draining the Afghan swamp; and he blew it. No use, while we are up to our ears in crocs, in pontificating .
I do respect Rand, while not always in agreement with him.
That being said, for a guy who loathes Liz Cheney, he sure seems to carve out a similar path to a political career on Capitol Hill:
Become a high ranking member of Congress thanks to your controversial' dear old dad's last name still carrying significant weight in the Republican Party. Assure everyone that you are more mainstream and less polarizing than daddy, and disagree with dad on various topics that people dislike him for. Then persistently and loudly keep trying to push dear old dad's agenda in the 21st century Republican Party, never questioning whether dad's ideals were flawed or why so many decent conservatives are turned off by dad.
Two sides of the same coin. Weird that that despise each other so much.
Since Rand wants to dredge back old stuff from the early 2000s and gloat "See? Dad was right! He WARNED ya about nation building in Afghanistan!", I will happily return the favor and dredge back up some foreign policy that his dad thought was a splendid idea back then:
Remember Ariel Sharon and Israel's unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in the name of peace? 'Neocons' back in 2005 in were vehemently against it and condemned Sharon as a traitor and said it would be a disaster. The liberal media, Democrats, and yes, Paleoconservatives like Ron Paul and Pat Buchanan were all FOR it, and had been saying for YEARS that Israeli was illegally "occupying" Gaza and their "Settlements" there an "obstacle to peace". Israel needed to be the bigger man and stop offending the Palestinaisn with their presence there, peacefully hand over the land completely to the Palestians, and give them the right to govern themselves. If Sharon would just stop being a mean nasty ol' warmonger and take that simple step, it would do a lot to defuse the situation there.
So, how's that been working out, Ron and Rand? Lots of "peace" in the Gaza strip these days? Those neocons who opposed it tooth-and-nail certainly see how wrong they were trying to justify the "occupation" right? Aren't things just peachy now that the Palestinians in Gaza can govern themselves without Israel having any say in the matter?
What's the matter, cat got your tongue? You seem as quiet about that as Bush and Cheney are about Afghanistan right now. Funny how it works that way!
I have always liked Rand and this year he has definitely set him apart with courage and honest questions about big issues. Hope he considers running in 2024.
I like Rand a lot, too. Many people were against the nation building and I think he just uses his dad Ron as an outspoken example of those opposed it.
Terrorism would have been on a continued ascendancy the entire time if we had listened to Ron Paul. We were attacking terrorist states because “they were different from us” - parroting the far left and the terrorist’s propaganda that it was a “war against Islam.” America was to blame for 9/11 attacks and they didn’t hate us for our values, etc.
Clueless then. Clueless now.
Not that I agree with being in Afghanastan for 20 years but the military did exactly that "nation building" in Japan and West Germany after WWII.
You cannot Nation Build when a country is stuck in the 7th Century.
I agree with that statement although Japan was stuck in feudalism and emperor worship. Islam is a cult of a different animal all together. What I disagree with is the statement that we can never nation build. That is a false statement.
Actually Japan was fairly modern, they even then pretty much were crazy for Baseball, even during the War.
Ron & Rand Paul are 2 of the reasons This Happened.
Their culture and mentality wasn't. Women and children jumping off cliffs rather than surrender, men committing suicide via kamakazi or on themselves or getting nuked twice before actually even considering surrender. Worshiping their emperor like a God. Not very modern.
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