What interventionist actions, please? This is the part no one in the Paul for President campaign has deigned to explain.
I was Dr. Paul's New York State campaign manager in 1988, when he ran for president as the Libertarian Party candidate. He's a good man, generally, and given his enormous respect for the Constitution he'd probably be a fine domestic president, but I don't get this bit about American interventions in the Middle East. Apart from the 1991 Gulf War, which we fought to liberate Kuwait and protect Saudi Arabia from Saddam Hussein, and the two operations going on today in Iraq and Afghanistan, I can't think of an incident in which American armed forces have done battle in the Middle East since 1945.
Those of us who'd like to retain our good will toward Dr. Paul would appreciate a clarification. Oh, by the way, to call one pole of a dispute "incontrovertible" isn't exactly cricket; it's like saying "sit down and shut up; I don't want to argue this any more."
Freedom, Wealth, and Peace,
Francis W. Porretto
Eternity Road
For example, during the late 1950s in protection of American oil interests, we sent CIA operatives into Iran in support and protection of the Shah. The Muslims, who hated the Shah for giving loyalty to western money and power, deposed him in favor of the religious leader Ayatollah Khomeini. The new government was strongly anti-American, and in the late 1970s they took hostages because we hospitalized and hosted the Shah to protect him from trial in Iran.
There are several more examples like the one above where we, the US, tried to protect our interests by “intervening” in other national affairs and it ended up back in our faces.
Like Ronald Reagan said after he pulled our troops out of Lebanon in the 80s, we don’t understand the mindset of the region. They are a tribal and territorial people. The tribes have been warring for thousands of years over familial territory. Like brothers who were previously feuding, they have banded together as a Muslim family to fight against intruders.
Because they are willing to travel to other countries and blow themselves up, we have two choices - either wipe them off the face of the earth, which is inhumane and unnecessary, or respect the wishes of the people in their own region and stop imposing our will on them.