Ron Paul on Afghanistan: Osama Bin Laden and the Russians must be laughing at us - 9/14/2009

http://www.RonPaul.com

Ron Paul: Finally we're going to talk about something other than medical care. The summer was saturated with the news and discussions in all the town hall meetings about what we're going to do about healthcare in this country. Even though that is a very important subject and it's going to continue for few months longer, right now though, the Congress is starting into a debate which I consider every bit as important, if not a lot more important. And that has to do with Afghanistan.

They're talking about debating whether or not we should send more troops into Afghanistan. And fortunately, I see some of the Democrats now splitting from the President on this issue. The President has always maintained that we need more troops; this is the "good war". He called it the long war, but it's the good war. Not like Iraq, that was the bad war. And now that there is a split there is a chance that we might be able to slow up this interventionism in this region. But right now though it looks like the President will prevail because Presidents generally do prevail because they'll scare the people and they'll say "If you don't, our national security will be threatened".

The one thing for certain is that our national security is not threatened by us not being in Afghanistan. Our national security is much more threatened by us being in Afghanistan. Or for that reason, any place in that region at all. That's where our real problems come from. It is argued that they need 240,000 more troops and some say let's just train the Afghan people. And we need a 130,000 trained Afghan people to do this. But who's going to pay for this? It won't do any good. If we have a puppet government there and Karzai is running it and it is our money and their troops are doing our bidding, we're still occupiers. It won't help, it will still move us towards bankruptcy and it doesn't solve the problem one bit. But at least this discussion is getting out and I consider it very, very dangerous what's happening over there.

At the same time when we're talking about expanding the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan, there is a relentless outcry about the Iranians by us trying to aggravate the Iranians into some type of a conflict. But up until now we have continued the same old process, the same foreign policy. We were led to believe with the Obama administration that policies might change, but the same people control foreign policy as they do monetary policy. And we will see our presence there for a long time, until we go bankrupt.

So many nations have gone bankrupt because of their overseas militaristic policies. And we're embarking on the same approach. I am sure Osama Bin Laden is laughing and the Russians are laughing at us because we're more or less trapping ourselves in this pretence that we're going to spread democracy and goodness around the world.

Last week they finally got around to investigating the NATO bombing in which some civilians got killed. They come up with the number that 99 civilians were killed. Though our side keeps saying "Oh no, they were all terrorist". You know, the definition of a terrorist used to be that a so-called terrorist when they were fighting the Soviets, we called them the freedom fighters. But now they are the terrorists.

Regardless, when Muslims are killed with our presence over there, we anger more and more people. That's why I argue that our national security is more threatened because of our bankruptcy. At the same time we just anger more and more people.

There is a lot to be said that our founders tried to get us to follow, and that is: mind our own business, stay out of entangling alliances of people around the world, and stay out of nation building. That day will probably come, but it will come on the heels of a bankruptcy, because we're moving rapidly toward that direction as we see the dollar tumble and our deficits skyrocket. But the sooner we come to our senses the better off we all will be.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• ron paul
• afghanistan
• osama bin laden
• foreign policy
• obama
• congress
• peace
• antiwar

[aprilmarco]

Yep Obama is a bitch.

[beefspareribs]

He makes a valid point, we once called the gorilla fighters of Afghanistan freedom fighters, when they engaged Soviet troops. Now we call them terrorists.

In Vietnam, when the French failed, we tried our hand in things and failed as well. Now much as the Soviets failed, we are destined to repeat history once again. Occupied people always resist and can not be defeated without a declaration of total war, complete carnage, savagery, and enslavement. We won't go that far, so we will lose.

[Obamawarmongers]

Obama Issues Ron Paul “Kill Order” As Russia Prepares For War

[angelablass]

If you haven't already, please donate to Ron Paul's MONEY BOMB TODAY - RIGHT NOW. Go to RonPaul2012(dot)com and give what you can....please, and thanks.

[MickyG4444]

@nexus1g I'm not going to fault your idealism, but when you read about this war and learn what it actually is, you see a very different picture. Watch Restrepo, read the general McChystal article, learn about Karzai's government and the locals relationsip with the Taliban. You'll see this war can't be won with American military force, which if anything exacerbates the sentiments of the region. The best way to guide people to democracy is to show them what a good one looks like, thus healthcare.

[nexus1g]

@MickyG4444 You *think* we cannot win. That doesn't make it true. And like it or not many basics of life are privileges, not rights. Housing and food being two of them. Always have been and always should be.

[MickyG4444]

@nexus1g We cannot win. You want to stay and kill our troops and thousands of others while bleeding our economy dry that's fine. Some problems are too complex to fix with troops and money. And to say "So people here can live more comfortably with healthcare" is such a margunalization of something that means life or death for so many people. If you think it's okay in this day and age for a first world county to let it's people die because they're poor... that's pretty messed up.

[nexus1g]

@MickyG4444 So just leave and let the terrorists have the country so people here can live more comfortably with health care? That's pretty messed up.

[MickyG4444]

@nexus1g No we don't. We are fighting tribal warfare with local feeling going from mild support to fiercely against while trying to prop up a government that has no power to control its country and has squandered away its legitimacy with extensive corruption This is a sink whole for money, soldiers, and resources. Don't tell me we can't afford public healthcare but we can afford to fight in this series of endless wars.

[nexus1g]

@MickyG4444 We have winnable goals set. But we don't have the manpower needed to meet those goals.