Ron Paul - Imagine Chinese or Russian Military Base in Texas

This speech is called "Imagine" and it was given by Ron Paul on March 11, 2009. The original text of the talk is below:

Imagine for a moment that somewhere in the middle of Texas there was a large foreign military base, say Chinese or Russian. Imagine that thousands of armed foreign troops were constantly patrolling American streets in military vehicles. Imagine they were here under the auspices of "keeping us safe" or "promoting democracy" or "protecting their strategic interests."

Imagine that they operated outside of US law, and that the Constitution did not apply to them. Imagine that every now and then they made mistakes or acted on bad information and accidentally killed or terrorized innocent Americans, including women and children, most of the time with little to no repercussions or consequences. Imagine that they set up checkpoints on our soil and routinely searched and ransacked entire neighborhoods of homes. Imagine if Americans were fearful of these foreign troops, and overwhelmingly thought America would be better off without their presence.

Imagine if some Americans were so angry about them being in Texas that they actually joined together to fight them off, in defense of our soil and sovereignty, because leadership in government refused or were unable to do so. Imagine that those Americans were labeled terrorists or insurgents for their defensive actions, and routinely killed, or captured and tortured by the foreign troops on our land. Imagine that the occupiers' attitude was that if they just killed enough Americans, the resistance would stop, but instead, for every American killed, ten more would take up arms against them, resulting in perpetual bloodshed. Imagine if most of the citizens of the foreign land also wanted these troops to return home. Imagine if they elected a leader who promised to bring them home and put an end to this horror.

Imagine if that leader changed his mind once he took office.

The reality is that our military presence on foreign soil is as offensive to the people that live there as armed Chinese troops would be if they were stationed in Texas. We would not stand for it here, but we have had a globe-straddling empire and a very intrusive foreign policy for decades that incites a lot of hatred and resentment towards us.

According to our own CIA, our meddling in the Middle East was the prime motivation for the horrific attacks on 9/11. But instead of re-evaluating our foreign policy, we have simply escalated it. We had a right to go after those responsible for 9/11, to be sure, but why do so many Americans feel as if we have a right to a military presence in some 160 countries when we wouldn't stand for even one foreign base on our soil, for any reason? These are not embassies, mind you, these are military installations. The new administration is not materially changing anything about this. Shuffling troops around and playing with semantics does not accomplish the goals of the American people, who simply want our men and women to come home. 50,000 troops left behind in Iraq is not conducive to peace any more than 50,000 Russian soldiers would be in the United States.

Shutting down military bases and ceasing to deal with other nations with threats and violence is not isolationism. It is the opposite. Opening ourselves up to friendship, honest trade and diplomacy is the foreign policy of peace and prosperity. It is the only foreign policy that will not bankrupt us in short order, as our current actions most definitely will. I share the disappointment of the American people in the foreign policy rhetoric coming from the administration. The sad thing is, our foreign policy WILL change eventually, as Rome's did, when all budgetary and monetary tricks to fund it are exhausted.

CREDITS:
Voice and Music was done by Jeremy Hoop
Video animation was done by Nicholas Bozman and MysteryBox. http://mysterybox.us

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Ron Paul
• Texas
• Chinese
• Russian
• Military
• Base
• Military Base
• Obama
• Barack Obama
• US
• Wars
• Wars Far From Over

[dojinho]

@anonymousaccount Look, a lot of people put all their hope in Obama, which was actually the theme of his campaign. The result : an increase in war effort, an increase in shielding from public scrutiny (in the use of secrecy), an increase in the use of terror against non-military targets (that of course reflexively are counted as valid military targets!), a sharp increase in violations of the US constitution... Ron Paul is another politician! He seems promising but so did Obama!

[anonymousaccount]

@dojinho I might disagree with Paul on some issues, but you have to give to the man - he is consistent and his arguments make sense. Frankly, I believe that is the biggest problem Paul is facing - his arguments make sense and people know where he stands, whereas with other candidates there is to much unknown left out for individual interpretation. Elections seem to be about "whom do I disagree with the least".

[anonymousaccount]

@infokemp all past US presidents were pro Saudi, since the biggest export of Saudi government is money. Where money is involved we can afford to be hypocritical and not respect US voters and their needs.

[infokemp]

P2 conclusion - If you want the US out of oil-banking-crime business you have to get off its addiction to oil (build Fusion power with EU & Japan) you have to get the Saudi-Binladen & Israeli lobbies out of the US & other western countries - starve the beast of its social-economic & political connections which protect it, you have to do the same with US based crime families like Exxon-mobile & Haliburton; no organised crime can survive the law without political protection.

[infokemp]

I do support the US having a limited foreign policy, there are just as many of Ron Paul's statements I agree with as disagree with - his views on the EU I find particularly strange as the US constitutional movement is what the EU often emulates - the rationalism of the video is justified but a distinction must be made - US is a great civilisation forged in 1776 - which is what this video is trying to invoke but Saudi-Binladen crime families are neo-feudalists they will not respect US boarders

[TheStellarRenegade]

This made me cry...

[rdcruick]

Sick video

[dojinho]

@Zionikk Dear person,

There is a huge difference between promises and actions. Candidates make promises; that is what they do. Only the president can turn to actions... but they are under tremendous pressure from powerful interest groups, if they are indeed in charge at all.

You cannot call promises anything but "words" and expect to be taken seriously. I absolutely hope Paul gets to be the candidate for the republican party and it would be interesting to see where he goes from there!

[Zionikk]

@dojinho They are not just words, they are words that the man has been saying for 30 years. The man speaks the truth, he knows what he is talking about. Ron Paul is our last hope.

[dojinho]

Just a reminder that 4 years ago, people said the exact same thing about Obama! Now, the Nobel prize laureate is the most fanatical defender of state secrecy, the use of force and presidential power...

I will believe Ron Paul if he gets elected and actually lives up to his campaign promises. Until then, they are just words, as refreshing as they might be!