Cong. Paul is also a physician, so he, like Dr. Howard Dean of the Democrat Party are not dumb. However, Cong/Dr. Paul’s comment is just ignorant and dangerous based on the facts of Jihadist ideology and this is exactly where I part company with the Libertarians that Paul is strongly connected to.
Jihadists do not live to enjoy voluntary exchange and the fruits of the division of labor. They do not seek to live in a non-coercive society. Indeed, **they reject such ideas** as ideas of the infidel, and would seek to use whatever force necessary to replace the free market, especially the free market in ideas, with the will of Ummah under Sharia.
Dr. Paul, and those who think like he does (that jihadists fight the west only because Bush invaded Iraq) ought to spend some time reading Osama bin Laden’s own words as to why he, and his supporters, struck the US on 9/11/2001. But he also ought to recall the words of the Marine hymn, “From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli...” because this is a direct reference to the US attack on the Barbary Pirates, who were jihadist Muslims who were attacking and enslaving our sailors in the late 1700’s.
Indeed, we are now seeing stunning scholarship about the millions of Africans and Europeans who were enslaved by Muslims and who still practice slavery.
The future course is clear: the world is on a collision course. Some future battle will settle humanity’s biggest question: will Islam be successfully resisted by the non-Islamic nations?
This is not a liberty issue. This is a fundamental battle against an ideology that insists on forcing every non-believer to answer the Three Demands: convert, submit, or die. Mere “hoodlums and convicts” do not make such demands. The only person who is qualified to be President until this matter is settled, will be one who understands how serious this conflict really is.
see:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1654140/posts
L.Ron is not “dumb,” but he is an isolationist, “Blame America First” idiot.