Some Commentary on Saturday Night's Debate

Let's be quite honest about something.  Most Republicans love Ron Paul when it comes to fiscal responsibility, tax policy, and taking down the size of government.  Where many abandon him is on the issue of foreign policy.  This is why Saturday night's debate was so crucial for Dr. Paul's candidacy.  He needs to explain his views on foreign policy, the war on terror, and foreign aid.  I think he could win over a lot of support if he did.  He was never given that opportunity.  During the hour long televised portion of the debate Dr. Paul was allowed less than 90 seconds of time to answer questions and air his views on these critical subjects. 

This minimalization and marginalization has been happening since the beginning of his candidacy.  The arrogant buffoon O'Reilly recently disqualified Paul from a poll that he was winning on his show because he said Paul supporters were "slamming" the poll.  Meanwhile, the top three on the poll all had directives on their facebook pages to go vote on the poll.  Dr. Paul did not.  In prior debates, despite consistently being in the top 3 of the Republican field Dr. Paul has been given air time consistent with the likes of Rick Santorum and Jon Huntsman, both at the bottom of the field.  The only candidate getting less attention is Gov. Gary Johnson. 

Since CBS and the Republican Establishment dont' want to give Dr. Paul a voice.  I will. 

Views on War

Dr. Paul believes that war is a serious thing.  Not just in committing American young men and women to harm's way, but the death and devastation it brings about in the targeted countries as well.  War should never be entered lightly, nor, according to the Constitution, should it be entered on the word of One Man.  That is not to say that he would avoid a war, were it in our national interests, but he would force Congress to take up their Constitutional responsibilities before he engaged our troops in hostilities.  He will not bind our troops to harms way under the auspices of any foreign organization without an explicit declaration from Congress.  He would end the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as quickly as possible and bring our young men and women home. 

So, how do the people of the military feel about Dr. Paul?  Well, he receives a higher percentage of his total campaign contributions from active and reserve members of the military than ANY other candidate. 

Foreign Aid

"Can't Buy Me Love" said it best.  You can't buy friends in this world.  This holds true for nations as well as people.  You can buy temporary alliances, you can buy service, and you can buy a temporary pause in hostility, but it does not last.  Too often, when the money continues what you wind up buying is control.  Let's look at some of our Foreign Aid successes.  In Egypt, we made the Mubarak regime one of the richest in the world, while his country was in relative poverty.  He purchased a strong military that he used to repress his people with OUR money.  Do not believe for a second that the people were unaware of the source of his funding.  What did we really buy?  We bought a generation of hate and distrust from the people of Egypt.  In Israel, they do very little without looking to Washington for tacit approval.  Why?  They have shaped their national economy around US Foreign Aid.  Anything that threatens that now threatens their way of life.  Except, for the past 14 years, as the US has attempted to play its heavy hand in shaping the Peace Process with the Palestinian Authority, Israel has worked to extricate itself from the influence of US money.  The best thing for Israel is for the United States to be its friend, but not it's controller.  Allow Israel to stand on her own feet, make her own decisions about her future and support her as she deserves.

The "War on Terror"

This is not a war.  Congress has not declared war and there are no political combatants or identifiable objectives to achieve.  The original aim was to destroy the capabilities of the international equivalent of a street gang to engage in criminal activity.  That goal was accomplished quickly, but then the goal posts were moved.  We now needed to take out the regime that gave them license to use their country as a staging ground.  Then that was accomplished.  Then we needed our own friendly regime in power.  Then we had to keep them in power.  Now, 10 years later, does anyone know what our goals are?  And what are we doing?  We're dropping bombs that kill hundreds of civilians in the hopes of killing 10 or 20 terrorists.  We're creating generations of hate for our country.  We're violating the principles of fairness and the rule of law on which our country was founded and justifying it by saying that these things don't apply oustide our borders.  If something is right at home, isn't it right outside as well?  We claim to support Christian values and then we stand up and cheer for the assassination of a man who was convicted only by the President and with whom were killed dozens of other nameless faces.  We support the idea that we should torture dozens in order to find that one bit of intelligence that may lead to an arrest or to the next village we can bomb.  Instead of making ourselves more secure, we are creating more people that we need to kill by fostering a hatred for us as a nation.


This is why you say Ron Paul is unelectable, because he is holding up a mirror to show us who and what we are and you don't like it.