I have allot of respect for the work Ron Paul's done over the years.
Paul's latest proposal has certainly raised my eyebrows. 1 Trillion in cuts...1st year? Yeah!
Cut all these insane federal (non-constitutionally mandated departments)....yeah!
Audit the Federal Reserve.....uh, hell yeah!
I want someone to address the loss of liberties over the last few decades. I want a person that sees government as the monstrosity that it is.
Cut federal government by 10%....1st year? I'm thinking, go Paul.
As far as cut and run. We have been in Iraq and Afghanistan for over ten years.......this IS NOT cut and run.
We need to bring sanity back into this whole foreign policy thing. We are broke. We cannot afford anymore interventions.
The constitution provides for intervention in foreign lands when our national security is at stake. Afghanistan? Uganda? Libya? Really? I mean really?
I understand your point. I would vote for Paul over Obama too. I haven’t read his entire proposal yet but I know I will like a lot of it.
As for my cut and run comment, Paul seems to advocate immediate withdrawal. I disagree with that. I know it has been 10 years - heck 20 years if you count Gulf War 1 and the troops stationed in the gulf. My point, however, is that we went in and disrupted the previous order. If we pull out in one fell swoop a new order will have to find itself and that could result in the deaths of tens or hundreds of thousands. Potentially millions.
I know the natural reaction is to say that is not our problem, and that wars - especially tribal and ethnic wars that have been going on for ages - are inevitable. True. But to the extent that we created a power vacuum, I think we need to ensure that it is filled before we go. Saddam for all his faults kept the tribes from cutting each others’ throats. At some point we do have to wash our hands of it, but I think we have some moral and ethical responsibilities after having taken out their leadership and banning his political party from ever taking power. We can devise a plan for a phased withdrawal that fits with our self-imposed responsibilities. I surely don’t want to be warring over there. If they want us out we should leave but if they ask for our help, and remain peaceful, then we are obliged because of our prior actions to to help them - to some degree that fits with our judgement of our own responsibilities. Just my opinion and I don’t have the answers or timeline.
65 years after WW2 Europe is stable, democratic, rich and even united behind a rival global reserve currency and a nascent federalist system. We need to view them as friendly rivals and not pay for their defense or foreign adventures (e.g. Libya). Our recent deployment to Africa is, I agree, asinine.