Rudy was desperate for distraction and Paul standing up against his constant flagwaving provided it.
That was a despicable display by FoxNews in ambushing Ron Paul with that question. However, FoxNews wasn’t half as disappointing as the response from the audience in completely missing the point.
America’s foreign policy has become one only shallowly considered and hastily implemented with an eye toward political expediency rather than sound doctrine. The questioner tried to insinuate that Ron Paul was implying that the US invited the 911 attack, which he wasn’t. However, what America has done is create a world where such an attack is more likely by failing to understand the ramifications of our foreign policy.
Back when the first Bush was in office we, through diplomatic ineptitude, failed to let Saddam know that an invasion of Kuwait was unacceptable. He invaded. We then failed to finish the job when we decided to overturn Saddam’s actions because it “looked bad” to see bodies littered on the highway to Baghdad. As a result of our politically correct decision of haste we were forced to stay in the region for a decade fighting a low grade war that eventually culminated in the second Iraqi war that we find ourselves in now. Had we, as Ron Paul suggests, either properly articulated a foreign policy or else fought a war to win instead of fighting a war for political correctness we wouldn’t have had this problem now.
The same shallowness of thought and concern for political correctness has resulted in the current mess in Iraq. We wring our hands over American casualties, Iraqi casualties, “innocent civilian” casualties, torture, etc… The harsh reality of war is that people die, usually a lot of people, and there are no such thing as innocent civilians, at least not if you want to win. Where do we think that the terrorists come from? They arise from the general population, are supported, protected, and funded by it, and as such the general population is as much a legitimate target as the front line fighters themselves. This position is terrible unpopular with the politically correct crowd, but it is the way we’ve fought every successful war (WWII, Philippine War, etc).
Ron Paul understands what the founding father’s understood; that we cannot go abroad seeking to slay dragons.