Posted on 05/26/2007 4:47:15 PM PDT by Coleus
Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) Thursday repeated his challenge to debate foreign policy with former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and offered Giuliani a "reading assignment" of books examining U.S. policy toward the Middle East. The Republican presidential hopefuls briefly sparred over foreign policy during the Republican debate in South Carolina on May 15. Giuliani criticized Paul for suggesting that U.S. policies in the Middle East contributed to Osama bin Laden's motivation in orchestrating the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
"Have you ever read about the reasons they attacked us? They attack us because we've been over there. We've been bombing Iraq for 10 years," Paul said during the debate. Giuliani interrupted Paul's comment to make a point of his own. "That's really an extraordinary statement," he said. "As someone who lived through the attack of September 11, 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 11."
In a post-debate interview on Fox News, Giuliani compared Paul's comments to conspiracy theories about Sept. 11 and said it "makes no sense." But during a news conference in Washington, D.C., Thursday, Paul said he was "giving Mr. Giuliani a reading assignment." He recommended that Giuliani read four books that outline causes for al Qaeda's hatred of the United States, including the 9/11 Commission Report and Chalmers Johnson's 2000 book, "Blowback." The night of the debate, Paul expressed a desire to debate Giuliani directly on foreign policy. Thursday, he told Cybercast News Service that he still wants to debate the former mayor but admitted it was "not likely" to happen.
Paul said his reading list backs up his position on foreign policy. "The whole notion that our foreign policy has nothing to do with [terrorism] and that Giuliani has never heard of this is preposterous," he said. "Even the 9/11 investigation report supports my position that there is blowback, that there are consequences." In its analysis of the motivating factors behind the al Qaeda attacks, the 9/11 Commission, formally known as The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, noted that bin Laden "stresses grievances against the United States widely shared in the Muslim world."
"He (bin Laden) inveighed against the presence of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia, the home of Islam's holiest sites. He spoke of the suffering of the Iraqi people as a result of sanctions imposed after the Gulf War," the commission report stated. Paul also cited a 2003 Vanity Fair interview with Paul Wolfowitz in which the then-deputy defense secretary said that U.S. troop presence in Saudi Arabia had been a "huge recruiting device for al Qaeda." "In fact, if you look at bin Laden, one of his principle grievances was the presence of so-called crusader forces on the holy land," Wolfowitz told Vanity Fair.
Paul said that addressing the grievances expressed by terrorist leaders like bin Laden could reduce the motivation for terrorist actions against the United States and its citizens. "They need something really forceful to get somebody to commit suicide terrorism," Paul said, adding that bin Laden and other terrorists would be "disappointed if we leave" Iraq because it would remove a major recruiting device. "He distorted what I believe," Paul said of Giuliani, criticizing his opponent for what he viewed as a personal attack. "We just need to get away from the demagoguing and the challenging [of] patriotism.
"The issue is foreign policy. It's not patriotism," Paul said, calling it "ridiculous" and "preposterous" to characterize his statement as placing blame for the attacks on the victims. In a statement e-mailed to Cybercast News Service , Giuliani spokeswoman Maria Comella said "to further declare Rudy Giuliani needs to be educated on September 11th when millions of people around the world saw him dealing with these terrorist attacks firsthand is just absurd." "It is extraordinary and reckless to claim that the United States invited the attacks on September 11th," Comella stated. She did not respond to Paul's invitation to debate Giuliani on foreign policy issues.
Bill Maher’s audience scream for Ron Paul. Case closed.
video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLOLYtWLMyw&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fcorner%2Enationalreview%2Ecom%2F
I assign Paul to read The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich for his foreign policy lesson.
Not hard to see how the media is USING Ron Paul, as something of a kook, to make Giuliani look good. Of course, in this project, both Giuliani and Ron Paul participate. The media is there to dutifully report these
“exchanges” between them, which are supposed to be highlights and rally everyone to Rudy’s side, but in fact just make everything look contrived and cynical.
I was going to point out that Ron Paul was a welcomed hero on the most anti-American show ever produced.
I knew nothing about Ron Paul until those debates several days ago...now I know all I need to know about him. He’s a phocking idiot.
Next excuse?
I actually voted for him in ‘88; can’t see that happening again.
Huh? I didn’t watch any video, I wasn’t responding to any video, just to point out that I’ve already seen this phenomenon in action, during the debates, and in references to it AFTER the debates when Giuliani has been interviewed on FOX, for example. The media I am talking about is NOT Bill Maher,(who I am sorry I don’t consider part of the Media, altho they’re bad enough), but precisely the media that , as I said, strives to make Giuliani look GOOD, by linking him up with an antagonist like Ron Paul. Or am I STILL unclear?
Bill Maher’s audience scream for Ron Paul. Case closed.
video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLOLYtWLMyw&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fcorner%2Enationalreview%2Ecom%2F
I guess I thought I was replying to the poster, Coleus, and not you. I was not replying to you, so I guess nothing I said made sense to you.Now I understand.....I think.......
No fan of either, but the more Rudy ducks Paul, the more it makes Rudy look bad.
The really eerie thing about all this is that Rudy is getting exposed
Ron, I’m pretty sure that none of the 9/11 guys was from Iraq. Most of them were, in fact, from Saudi Arabia, a country that we have, I’m also pretty sure, never bombed (whether we perhaps should have is another matter). And your point was?
Why is Ron Paul ducking my challenge to have him debate me?
Why is Ron Paul cowardly avoiding AmishDude?
What is Ron Paul afraid of?
Why is Paul ducking me? Why is he afraid to debate me? I let his minions on FR know of the challenge I was issuing. Why won’t Paul debate me?
Pearl Harbor decisively refutes Paul’s stupid theory.
As if the disgrace of America leaving the UK to fight the Reich alone isn’t enough refutation of Paul’s America First! non-interventionism.
We all know those persistent ‘smartest guy in the room,’ but despite their intelligence they just can’t seem to convince people of much of anything.
On what basis do you make that conclusion? Pearl Harbor doesn't "refute' Paul's theory, though it does confirm the fact that FDR probably deserved impeachment for his possiby criminal failure have us reasonably well prepared for such an attack.
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