Sometimes I’m amazed at how stupid some of you people can be. Of course Ron Paul never said those things, and NapkinUser wasn’t saying that he did. His point was that the neocons say and have said things like that, which is a better example of “sucking people in with pretty words”. Ron Paul doesn’t speak with pretty words - he speaks the blunt, honest truth, even if it’s painful to hear.
No, but wideawake and Ramesh Ponnuru spoke the truth on this issue:
The comment in brackets is mine.
Al-Qaeda hates and targets America because America is : (a) powerful and (b) not Muslim.Al-Qaeda's goal is a restoration of the world to what they perceive to be its golden age: an era when an armed Islam united under a supreme Caliph was the world's uncontested superpower.
Anything America does or fails to do is a sufficient excuse for their hatred.
Modifying our policies in any way will not change the fact that we are powerful and not Muslim.
16 posted on 05/17/2007 11:58:35 AM PDT by wideawake
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It is one thing to make a case on the merits that our foreign policies should be changed. Perhaps we should end our alliance with Israel. Perhaps we should remove our troops from Saudi Arabia, or lift the sanctions on Iraq. But not under duress. A policy designed to keep from offending people who might be inclined to attack us is a policy of preemptive capitulation to terrorists. In his address to Congress, President Bush explained why the terrorists kill: "With every atrocity they hope that America grows fearful, retreating from the world and forsaking our friends." The terrorists' hope is the frank advice of those who would have us back away from Israel because of the September 11 attacks [or run out of Iraq like scalded dogs].
Dishonorable in principle, such a policy would also fail in practice. There would be no obvious stopping-point to it. Having seen terrorism accomplish its objectives in the Mideast, why should North Korea not use it to make us withdraw our protection from South Korea? Beijing could sponsor terrorism until we let it swallow Taiwan. In the past, Puerto Rican independistas have resorted to terror. Etc. Shall we capitulate to them all?
Here, then, is the true strategy being recommended to America: Curl up and die.--Ramesh Ponnuru
Though I am not sympathetic to isolationist sentiments, if I were I would have the exact same position I have now. We are in this fight now, and if we run away from this fight, if we show weakness in the face of people who only listen to death and strength, we will get more terrorism, not less. Moreover, the fight will likely be over here, not over there. The duty of every American is to get behind this effort and push until victory. Then everybody can snipe all they want.