Ron Paul: 'U.S. Has Dug a Hole for Itself in Iraq' (Johns Hopkins Speech Today)

ABC News ^ | September 11, 2007

[Austin Willard Wright]

ABC News' Nitya Venkataraman and Nancy Flores report: While his 2008 rivals in Washington, D.C. spent the morning in congressional panels debating the future of US involvement in Iraq, GOP Presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul charged the U.S. has "dug a hole for [itself]" in Iraq, and simultaneously defended his anti-war place in the Republican party and jabbed the current administration saying, "you don't have to be a war monger to be a conservative."

At a policy forum at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, D.C., Paul described Iraq as a "preemptive war" saying it was a "planned invasion and occupation" of a "country that was no threat to us whatsoever."

What might seem like bold rhetoric from the fiery Texas Republican on the anniversary of a historic day is actually nothing new for Paul. His assertions at the forum were consistent with his presidential platform and congressional career, both of which draw heavily from libertarian and constitutionalist ideals.

[jrooney]

Ron Paul was flying below the radar with his nutiness before. By running for the presidency, he has exposed himself and his views are the talk of republican circles. Republicans do not like what they see in this man. He is unfit to be in Congress representing the GOP. He is toast.

[OCCASparky]

L. Ron oughta know about holes and digging into them.

[ksen]

Why does the GOP allow this moonbat liberal to call himself a Republican?

Hey, this is a Paul thread not a Giuliani thread.

[tomnbeverly]

Typical like most liberals hate/blame Bush...

The problem is that not enough people use context as in, WHERE WOULD WE BE IF BUSH HAD NOT ACTED... How many more American citizens would be dead....

If Bush had not acted against Saddam Hussein in March 2003 and if Saddam had then (emboldened by UBL Success on 911) and gaining strength (read money) using the Oil For Food corruption scam.. either directly or indirectly funneled... (Money, Weapons, Assistance) to Al-Qaeda and then they performed another more grandiose attack on the U.S. what would the critics say then?
Wouldn’t the anti-war left decry Bush in that he didn’t do enough to stop terror.... Wouldn’t the Right ridicule Bush for failing to take action like Clinton before him?

And then after proof of Saddams involvement would it have changed the outcome of the insurgency? Wouldn’t the facts on the ground still be the same? The question that America is wrestling with is.... Is it worth it? and to that answer Bush and his administration has done a poor job in reminding America that it is worth it....

If of course you do not use context then yes everything that any President has ever done has consequently been the wrong decision at the wrong place at the wrong time....

[mnehring]

I wonder if he was in on the Oil for Food scam?

In Paul's defense, Oscar Wyatt (US Oilman on trial for being part of the scam) didn't give anything to Paul, he mostly gave to Dems.

http://www.opensecrets.org/indivs/search.asp?key=DJR3D&txtName=wyatt,%20o&txtState=TX&txtAll=Y&Order=N

Here are Paul's donors:

http://www.opensecrets.org/indivs/search.asp?key=DJR3D&txtState=TX&txtCand=Paul&txt2008=Y&Order=N

With all my differences with the guy, I really doubt he had anything to do with oil for food.

[capt. norm]

Here is the relevant equation:

Ron Paul =

[No Truce With Kings]

“He is unfit to be in Congress representing the GOP.”

I live in his district. We are going to do our best during the primary to return him to his medical practice.

[reagan_fanatic]

Paul described Iraq as a "preemptive war" saying it was a "planned invasion and occupation" of a "country that was no threat to us whatsoever."

It's official - Ron Paul has lost his nut.

[NascentDocent]

Ron Paul makes a lot of sense. I wonder if we are seeing the repeat of the 1850’s and the end of the Whigs, what with this split of Big Gov repubs with ideological conservatives.

[capt. norm]

Ron Paul,,why didn't he stay a doctor?

Would you want this guy doing "doctor things" to you?

I think I now know why he had to give up the 'doctor gig'.

[L.N. Smithee]

What a coincidence! Ron Paul digs a hole for himself every time he's asked a question. He always tries to shift the topic so he can blather on about "neocons!" and failed strategies, and doesn't address specifics about what must be done right now.

O'Reilly, of all people, cleaned his Paul's clock Monday night, when he was ducking questions about a nuclear Iran filling a power vacuum with the nukes they are developing, wanting instead to talk about "letting bin Laden go to Pakistan" and such stuff.

[lormand]

"Nah....the “buffons” are the Pollyanna’s who predicted that the war would pay for itself via oil, that Iraq would become a democratic shining light for the Middle East, etc. Ron Paul was right all along."

...still scratching my head wondering why Cindy Sheehan supporters, i.e., willing dupes of Al Qaida, are allowed to spew their spew as members of Freerepublic, ON FREEREPUBLIC.

[Nathan Zachary]

Don’t forget Bush has been around for 7 years gathering leftist moonbat “admiration”, Ron Paul has only moved into the spotlight within the last year, and most of that “admiration” has come from the right.
Imagine what the results would be if Ron Paul was in the spotlight daily for 7 years.

[OCCASparky]

We are going to do our best during the primary to return him to his medical practice.

Anyone recruited yet who isn't more insane than him? Do you have the state GOP on board your side yet?

[winodog]

I am suprised at all the hate and hostility directed at him.
Its not normal.

[BallyBill]

The population in Paulville gets smaller every time Ron Paul opens his mouth.

[billygoatgruff]

That picture needs to come with Laurel & Hardy music.

[Allegra]

Imagine what the results would be if Ron Paul was in the spotlight daily for 7 years.

What an absolutely nauseating thought.

[Moose4]

Agreed 100%. Paul is a hardcore small-government libertarian with a heavy conservative streak (he’s pro-life), and I guess that’s where he comes off following the LP isolationist line about non-intervention. But man, the guy is just completely tone-deaf. He’s falling into the trap that the antiwar left has laid...they’re cheering him and pumping him up because he’s against the Iraq war, and so he keeps spewing that tripe instead of playing up the things that really would make most Republicans like him.

The irony is, of course, that the Moveon.org and Code Pinko antiwar moonbats who love Paul because he’s antiwar would be the first ones to call him every nasty name in the book if he ever did get in national office.

}:-)4

[demshateGod]

“Paulestinians love putting words in other people’s mouths”

Seriously, I don’t remember anyone ever saying the war would pay for itself in oil.