Ron Paul: ‘U.S. Has Dug a Hole for Itself in Iraq’
EmailABC News’ Nitya Venkataraman and Nancy Flores report: While his 2008 rivals in Washington, D.C. spent the morning in congressional panels debating the future of US involvement in Iraq, GOP Presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul charged the U.S. has "dug a hole for [itself]" in Iraq, and simultaneously defended his anti-war place in the Republican party and jabbed the current administration saying, "you don’t have to be a war monger to be a conservative."
At a policy forum at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, D.C., Paul described Iraq as a "preemptive war" saying it was a "planned invasion and occupation" of a "country that was no threat to us whatsoever."
What might seem like bold rhetoric from the fiery Texas Republican on the anniversary of a historic day is actually nothing new for Paul. His assertions at the forum were consistent with his presidential platform and congressional career, both of which draw heavily from libertarian and constitutionalist ideals.
Though a lesser known candidate in the GOP’s 2008 pool, Paul’s swell of grassroots and web-savvy supporters, strict anti-abortion philosophies, and challenges to party dogma surrounding the war, fuel fire and debate in the conservative spectrum.
In fact, Paul’s most recent headline-garnering 9/11 remarks in May were revisited Tuesday.
During a May Republican presidential debate in South Carolina Paul made headlines when he linked the September 11th attacks to previous United States involvement in the Middle East. "They attack us because we’ve been over there. We’ve been bombing Iraq for 10 years." Paul said.
Paul suggested "we listen to the people who attacked us and the reason they did it."
At the time, Rudy Giuliani pounced on Paul’s comments, calling them "extraordinary" and demanding a retraction.
Paul stood his ground in the debate, putting himself on the anti-war map, "If we think that we can do what we want around the world and not incite hatred, then we have a problem."
Today, when asked to clarify who was to blame for the 9/11 attacks, Paul blamed " bad policy", but said the "ultimate responsibility fell on the people who committed the crime."
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Ron Paul hates our troops. What a liberal surrender monkey.
Posted by: Fred '08 | September 11, 2007, 3:30 pm 3:30 pm
No Fred… Ron Paul just hates your dumb ###!
Posted by: jack | September 11, 2007, 3:42 pm 3:42 pm
America needs Ron Paul in the White House!
Posted by: Jill Peters | September 11, 2007, 3:42 pm 3:42 pm
Ron LOVES the troops and doesn’t want another to die in a senseless war for oil. He wants to increase funding to VA hospitals. The troops love Ron paul. he recived more donations from U.S. military personel then any other candidate running in Q2. Ron Paul is a war vet who served in Viet Nam
Ron Paul simply states that Roe vs wade was unconstituional and says the states should make their own laws about abortion according to the Constitution.
Pauls ten term voting record in Congress PROVES, he leads by the Law of the U.S. Constitution, not his Religion.
Ron Paul is not a racist. Ron Paul is for individual rights for all.
Posted by: Todd | September 11, 2007, 3:52 pm 3:52 pm
Ron Paul is the only candidate that can prevent Bill Clinton from becoming “first man”
Some nitwit talks about being a surrender monkey – we already achieved our objectives – Saddam is gone, WMD’s aren’t an issue. Quit playing politics with America Soldiers lives. If you want to win hearts and minds, get off your lazy but and all know that Fred ’08 is too much of a coward to do such a thing though
Posted by: Eric | September 11, 2007, 4:02 pm 4:02 pm
Thanks for covering Dr. Paul’s appearance at Johns Hopkins today. It’s good to see some straightforward reporting on his campaign from ABC. Keep it up!
Posted by: Mark | September 11, 2007, 4:13 pm 4:13 pm
Thanks for doing your job without skewing the information! It IS appreciated
Posted by: Stuart | September 11, 2007, 4:44 pm 4:44 pm
You go Ron. We need a dialog that might move the party back to the center. Are we really benefiting from this new world order, interventionist policy? After 9/11 Geaorge turned left and got trapped. We just can’t run away now though. General Petreus’ advice seems sound to me.
Posted by: Mike | September 11, 2007, 8:08 pm 8:08 pm
America is awash in bureaucracy, debt-ridden, and non-competitive globally, thanks to the corrosive influence of special interest groups on both domestic and foreign policies. These groups and their political sponsors have been unpatriotic and non-dynamic for promoting America’s economic problems. And, because warfare is one market in which the U.S. is dominant, we will continue on this path indefinitely, until the politicians are stopped and/or the country is totally insolvent. The politicians know this, but they don’t want to cut their lifelines. Just look at all the top tier candidates and follow the money trail. An expose by mainstream media would shed a lot of light on this problem.
Posted by: Scott Harmon | September 11, 2007, 9:44 pm 9:44 pm
If you want to see the rest of our liberties disappear and finish off America as we knew it, don’t vote for Ron Paul. Do some research to discover the truth…..not the “truth” that you have been spoon fed by media and our oh so honest government. Don’t be a follower, be a leader.
Vote for Ron Paul….the only sane choice!
Posted by: Bob | September 11, 2007, 11:21 pm 11:21 pm
I agree I like Ron Paul and I am tired of the Left right Bashing. You know what yes Bush has done a poor job at running this war. This should have not been a ground war it should have been anuclear strike on Iraq, Iran and Afganistan. problem solved.
Posted by: David Dunnington | September 11, 2007, 11:42 pm 11:42 pm
Ron Paul must hate freedom.
Posted by: William T. Patton, Jr. | September 12, 2007, 7:35 am 7:35 am
What happened to the dozens and dozens of positive, intelligent comments i read yesterday?
Posted by: arden osborne | September 12, 2007, 4:16 pm 4:16 pm
Ron Paul says the Iranians were justified in taking our embassy in 1979, that they were justified in murdering our 243 marines in the barracks in Lebanon and the Iranians are justified in working to undermine our mission in Iraq just because the CIA overthrew their leftist president way back in 1953.
Ron Paul is a classic old school Isolationist and would have voted against the 1941 declaration of War because he would have claimed Japan was justifed for bombing us because we put an embargo on them.
Posted by: Paul Ron | September 12, 2007, 4:45 pm 4:45 pm
The winds of change are blowing through the citizens of this once great land. The Constitution had a road map to greatness and when they were followed America prospered. The Federal Reserve stuck it to us in 1929 and is about ready to make us a third world nation. Or a stodge or the New World Order. Now that corn is made into ethanol, we may not have enough food to survive and are looking at food shortages this year. Mexico is running out of oil and they have to pay twice as much for corn as last year yet they have the richest man in the world while the population will be hungry. Ron Paul is needed to stop the Elitists from sending us down the same path.
Go Ron Paul.
CHEERS,
Posted by: Ronald Murphy | September 12, 2007, 4:46 pm 4:46 pm
Ron: That hole is actually a bunker for a bigger battle.
Posted by: Walt | September 12, 2007, 7:13 pm 7:13 pm
Ron Paul is the one voice of rational sanity in this field. We are crowded on both sides by pandering and conventional candidates, virtually interchangeable. The waters of real FREEDOM and significant Reform will not be carried on the backs of Hillary, Barrack, Rudy, or Fred. Dr. Paul is the only one in the pool of candidates that actually realizes how diminished our liberties have become and actually has the experience to be able to counteract it. I hope people unfamiliar with Ron Paul will critically listen to what he is saying and determine for themselves if we are ready for rational thought or too far down the emotional and frightened path of the conventional wisdom.
Posted by: Tommy Q | September 12, 2007, 7:58 pm 7:58 pm
Ron Paul is our only hope.
It is high time people did their own research on the candidates (from multiple and deverse sources) and stop voting down party lines or voting the way their favorite news channel tells them to.
The founding fathers would be proud to vote for this man; and ashamed of every single other candidate out there. The rest of the field is simply bought and paid for…….that is why the so called frontrunners have raised so much money. It is from big business/special interest, not the common man, like Ron Paul’s supporters.
Register as a Republican so you can vote in the primary in your state.
VOTE RON PAUL.
Posted by: Greg | September 12, 2007, 10:07 pm 10:07 pm
Ron Paul is so far right, he’s left.
Posted by: Bob Pappas | September 13, 2007, 12:28 am 12:28 am
I can’t believe how misled some people are. I see someone called Ron Paul a surrender monkey. You’ve been listening to way too much conservative talk radio. How is it surrender if we leave another country, where we don’t belong? The only way we could surrender is if we had a war going on here and gave up, which will never happen, the American people are too resilient, and we have lots of guns. (for now)(don’t let that change, ever!) And someone else said, Ron Paul must hate freedom. Another poor misguided soul. Freedom has nothing to do with the war in Iraq and anyone who believes that it does, is an idiot. Sorry! I usually never say things like that. I’m not a one sided, partisan, opposition, party basher. I call em like I see em, which is the way everyone should be. Don’t you have a mind of your own? Do you need your leaders to tell you what to think? I am not a democrat, I am not a republican, I am an AMERICAN and I think for myself! Some liberal issues I agree with and mostly conservative issues I agree with. I go with my gut feeling, I don’t let anyone tell me how I should feel. I don’t agree with Ron Paul on every issue, if I agreed with anyone on every issue, I would feel like a little lamb going off to slaughter! But I do know one thing, RON PAUL STANDS FOR FREEDOM! That is his whole message! Do some research, get educated, don’t choose between puppet A or marionette B.
Posted by: Dennis | September 13, 2007, 12:30 am 12:30 am
How many of the war neo-con politicians have had their family fight against the “war on terror”? I’m proud of my son, Major Dave, who has flown a total of 40 combat missions in Afghanistan & Iraq’s “no fly” zone. And I thank the Lord he has not participated in our criminal imperialist invasion of Iraq!!!
Dr. Ron Paul lives family values – one wife, 5 children (2 MDs) 2 brothers who are ministers, pro-life from conception, anti-death penalty etc. Dr. Paul has the prescription for America’s ills of WAR, IRS, NAFTA, JOB DRAIN, NORTH AMERICAN UNION, UNSOUND MONEY, etc.!!!
Wake up young men & women, register to vote – (DRAFT is seriously contemplated) You will be the cannon fodder during our inevitable invasion of IRAN. Support and work for DR. RON PAUL!!!
Posted by: ART DeANGELIS | September 13, 2007, 1:43 am 1:43 am
Virtually every single socio-political-economic maladay affecting the U.S. — and the globe in general — can be traced to going off a hard commodity monetary standard, such as gold, and the moral philosophy underlying that.
The non-understanding of the fundamental difference between real money and a paper receipt for real money, and the complete replacement of the former with the latter by those private corporations of central bankers who do know, will be the downfall of not only America and Western Civilization but also finish off killing the underlying concept of a apriori natural rights — i.e., individuals obtain their rights from Nature, not from governments. Ron Paul is correct in stating that the U.S. Constitution is not a “granting” document, it is a “prohibiting” document, prohibiting infringements against natural rights obtained before the existence of any government.
This inability to conceptualize the true definition of money, as opposed to fiat currency, and the unconstitutional institutionalization of the private Fed Reserve to “manage” the free market (an oxymoron), allows all manner of spending w/o taxation, all manner of creating more fake commercial paper by the subsidiaries of the Federal Reserve including sub-prime mortgages to derivatives to hedge funds to the Yen Carry Trade to Black Box Trading to You-Name-It fake paper, all of which encompass the same concept: i.e., non-collateralized paper, much of which is supposedly “backed” by other non-collaterized paper etc.
Nor is it true that the dollar is backed by America’s GDP. The Fed Reserve does not own each citizen’s property and thus it cannot be pretended to act as redeemable collateral.
The War in Iraq, Congressional earmarks, deficit financing, and America’s onward tromp towards a giant Welfare State to redistribute and control every individual’s assets is the direct result of going off the gold standard. By moulding the average citizen’s moral philosophy into altruistic collectivism, the only thing left for the Power Brokers was to strip us of a true monetary system and replace it with paper.
The solution to all this madness is to re-institutionalize the concept of true money, commodity money, and redeemable certificates for such, with no fractional reserve banking, and thus allow all citizens to reclaim their inalienable a priori rights in a truly free market rather than the current fake free market of special interest groups.
Quack Off
by Free Market Duck
Posted by: FM Duck | September 13, 2007, 12:04 pm 12:04 pm
Ron Paul takes a straight-up approach to governing. I have liked that since I first saw a video of him.
Rudy, took a very McCarthy-like shot at Paul during the debates in May–trying to paint Paul as a sort of unpatriotic conspirator against the American people. Rudy may have just said, “Retract what you said or be hung.” But Paul stood his ground.
These comments about how Paul must hate freedom, or that he is a surrender monkey make no sense at all. Was George Washington being unsympathetic to American interests when he said, “Beware of foreign entanglements?” I think Ron Paul is just following our first president’s advice.
Vote Ron Paul. WE NEED A CHANGE!! We just need to be the initiators of that change.
Posted by: Matt | September 13, 2007, 12:51 pm 12:51 pm
Foreign Currency Day Trading System
Thu, Sep 6 2007, 21:13 GMT by Jordan Lindsey. foreign currency trading- It is an inno
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