Ron Paul

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Category: News and Politics

OK, I haven't blogged here in seemingly forever and this one will be short, but I felt a need to say something about this... If you caught the Republican Presidential debates last week, you likely saw Ron Paul comment about what the U.S. has done in the past to bring about the kind of sentiment that caused the events of 9/11. Everyone else on stage and in the audience seemed to look at the guy like he had two heads for suggesting that we need to take a look at our own actions in the world as we look for answers in how to deal with terrorism, and Rudy Giuliani even took him to task over it to great applause.

What a crock. I lost all respect for Giuliani on that one. Here's someone that has the cahones to come out and actually question our foriegn policy and rather than open up a serious discussion that could lead to something, Giuliani took it as an opportunity to make the guy look like a freak. I'm sorry, but our foriegn policy has LOTS to do with where we are today with Al Qaeda. Those people have never wanted us around, yet we've seen fit to stick our noses in worldwide. I really think the big one was when the Saudi government chose U.S. forces to protect them from Iraq over Osama back in the 70's.

Might this "radical" brand of Islam come to flourish without our meddling in the Middle East? Sure. Would it have happened as quickly or produced the sort of fervor it has? I'll leave that for you to decide, but my bet is it wouldn't have. Osama and his hardy band would have been happy for a number of years as hometown heroes and hired guns in the region - after driving the Russians out of Afghanistan they needed something to do and we took away their employment.

So, while I don't consider myself a Republican, kudos to Ron Paul for attempting to open up a real debate about a foriegn policy that involves something other than a big stick. Click here for more.