Posted on 09/07/2007 10:40:07 AM PDT by NapkinUser
Edited on 09/07/2007 2:31:57 PM PDT by Lead Moderator. [history]
Has this been a hectic and encouraging time! First we got almost 17% in the Texas straw poll, an event set-up to represent the establishment, with very restrictive voting rules. That 17% of the Republican hierarchy would support our views, after a full day of pro-war propaganda, is good news. Then we won the more open Maryland Republican straw poll with 28%. In both cases, as usual, hard-working, well-organized volunteers made all the difference.
The Fox debate was a lot of fun as well. It's true that a few of the network people are not exactly with us on foreign or domestic policy (though one famous guy whispered to me that he is a libertarian), but the audience—with lots of students from the University of New Hampshire—was definitely fair and balanced, as their enthusiastic reaction showed.
My opponents called for more war, more torture, more secret prisons, more eavesdropping, more presidential power. Some seemed to identify the government and the people as if they were one entity. But you and I know that once the government moves beyond its very limited constitutional mandate, it is an opponent of the people, a rip-off operation that takes our money and our freedom and our social peace, and gives us a mess of statist pottage in return.
The government failed miserably on 911 to protect us, despite spending trillions. So the answer was supposed to be the giant, socialist Department of Homeland Security, protecting you and me from taking our toothpaste on the airplane. I was ridiculed for saying that the airlines, which know best how to protect their property, should have been allowed to arm their pilots. But then, you and I really believe in the Second Amendment. It is not just a political slogan for us.
When I discussed the blowback that came from us intervening on the Arabian peninsula, Chris Wallace asked me if I wanted to follow the marching orders of al-Qaeda. I responded that I wanted to follow the marching orders of the Constitution, and not wage undeclared, aggressive wars that cause us only trouble. This is a mystifying to some, of course, but not to more and more Americans.
There was much talk of taxes, and a pledge not to raise rates. But as usual, I was not allowed to discuss my lifelong pledge to abolish the income tax. Just holding the line, when the government takes such vast sums through an illegitimate guilty-until-proven-innocent system, is hardly enough. We need to slash taxes and spending if we are to have a future of prosperity for ourselves and our families.
After the debate, many young people gathered around the stage to discuss our ideas and ask questions about them (and to have me sign their badges). My colleagues got no such response, and after a few moments, "security" ordered me off the stage. Can't have any such demonstration of interest in liberty.
But the young are with us, and so are Americans of every stripe. Even party officials. When one of my opponent said it was OK to lose elections through supporting the Iraq war, that set party people's teeth on edge, and rightly so. The Republican party is shrinking. We need new people. It's either our ideas or President Hillary, and more and more people recognize it.
But the media, and everyone else, will be looking at fundraising totals at the end of this month. They'll judge us by how we do. And we need help to wage what we hope will be a full-scale, 50-state campaign. Please help me head into the next quarter fully armed to do battle for freedom, peace and prosperity. Make your most generous contribution https://www.ronpaul2008.com/donate/. This Revolution is on the move, but it very much needs your support.
Sincerely,
Ron
At whose invitation? Here is one of the fundamental problems with Paul.. he is giving the terrorists the authority to say who or who isn't allowed to be stationed there.. We are in Saudi Arabia at the invitation of their government. They even gave us the land to build an air base.. Why does Osama have the final say so as to where we build a base? Why is the terrorist's authority greater than the governments of those counties?
Yuck...
Yes, the Barbary pirates DO count.
They believe in a cult that has at its' core world domination. WE are the biggest hindrance to their goal.
Why do you and RP find that so hard to understand?
As far as debating the Paulbearers (love that name!) the definition of insanity is continuing the same action and expecting a different out come.
The debates have been held on FR and the Paulbearers (Yippee! got to use it again!) refuse to face facts so end of debate from the sane side. Now it's just FUN!
Nope, we are neutral on the Conservative candidates. The liberals and moderate libertarians are all fair game..
Best entertainment value on the web...
Which is really only Wyler's because he can't afford Kool-aid and his minions will drink what they're told anyway.
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Exactly right.
Pretty sure we are no longer in Saudi Arabia. At their request, we removed our troops.
I'll drink to that! (just not Kool Aid ;) )
No, no....everybody knows that it's Ron Paul and his followers who are the only people who really know anything about the Constitution.
Let me just add that, compared to L.Ron, I am King of the World of Constitutional Law. That guy knows less about the Constitution than a 1L dropout.
The point, I believe, is that we shouldn't maintain military bases in ANY other nations. The big problem (as the Muslim's see things) is that they believe those in power in their government are now puppets of the 'west' and do not represent their own nation's and people's best interests.
I notice that you didn't answer my original question....
At that, the only two countries in the ME we have bases in now where we aren’t there ‘by invitation’ is Iraq and Afghanistan, and we weren’t in those countries when Osama made the statement regarding his reasoning.
Our troops were there to assist the Kingdom in the event of aggression from Saddam Hussein - with Hussein gone, there was no further need to deploy those elements in Saudi Arabia.
I forget, where were those troops stationed in the 1960s?
Use the Shah as an excuse, it works better.
The idea that there's no ideology involved in terrorism is absurd. The motivation is spewed out throughout the Islamic world every day, it's religious in nature. Though in the past pan-Arab marxism was a significant factor.
Why shouldn't we?
Preposterous notion.
Then the point is an ass.
The big problem (as the Muslim's see things) is that they believe those in power in their government are now puppets of the 'west' and do not represent their own nation's and people's best interests.
And L.Ron thinks we should fashion our foreign policy in accommodation of these Muslims.
Oh PUHLEZE.....The Barbary pirates were just that...PIRATES. Granted they were operating with the blessings of the Bey of Algiers but there were NOT suicide bombers or going into other nations to blow things up in retaliation for perceived misdeeds. You know full well what I was asking and yet you chose to obfuscate with your side-track into piracy. Since you insist on going back that far, you must realize that the reason we took action in that case was to rescue AMERICANS who had been taken as hostages and that we did not leave our military there to police the region once the hostilities ended......
I resubmit my original question....name the first time..........
Nice idea, but it has no reflection of the real world we live in.. our bases extend the arm of our interest. We do not live in the 19th century where something that happens on the other side of the globe doesn't effect us.
...and I didn't answer your original question because it would only be a legitimate question if people have a time machine.. of course, if you have that time machine, you should also check to make sure that the alternative to risking blowback isn't greater than the blowback itself. Saddam was a blowback situation, but the alternative could have been Iran taking over Iraq, and continuing to go from there.. much greater of a problem than the blowback that resulted from Saddam.
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Of course we should, in any nation where it is a benefit to our national security. Why do you think we maintain bases in Japan and Germany, for example?
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