The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Ron Paul Still A Few Foreign Policy Briefs Behind, But Tempering His Rhetoric

Posted on | November 20, 2011 | 65 Comments

by Smitty

Via Political Class Dismissed, we have Ron Paul on Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer, born under FDR and who has been with CBS since, shag me, I was born.

Schieffer sounds his age, and tries to go after Paul on the usual foreign policy topics. Interestingly, Paul tempers his opinions on questions of causality for events like 9/11. Let me form my objection to Paul as a question: when should you ever take your enemy’s propaganda at face value? When they are Commies? Nazis? Radical Muslims waging explosive jihad? Teach is just a little less gentle in objecting to Ron Paul.

The remark about 900 bases in north of 130 countries is equally worrisome. Paul is correct about the unaffordability of the arrangements we have, for example, troops in South Korea and Japan. The ‘bring the boys home’ argument, though, ignores both the historical reasons the troops are there and the unintended consequences of creating a power vacuum. The Chinese don’t like the Koreans don’t like the Japanese don’t like the Chinese. While none of the peoples involved have any screaming love of Americans, they do give us basing and buy our debt so that we can provide a Pax Americana.

It is an interesting policy question to talk about pulling the plug on the Pax Americana, but Ron Paul owes potential voters just a little more detail on how he intends to shore up the status quo.

It is as though Ron Paul has really done his homework on fiscal policy, and opted for something perhaps over-simplified on the foreign policy front.

After all that, Ron Paul is way ahead of the pack in discussions about trimming federal over-reach, which is 15 trillion kinds of essential. Thus, I’m glad to see him linger in the debates, if only as a thorn in the side of the RINO crowd, which is more interested in admiring problems than demonstrating leadership in going after them.

Update: linked at Katy Pundit.

Category: Ron Paul, Video

Comments

65 Responses to “Ron Paul Still A Few Foreign Policy Briefs Behind, But Tempering His Rhetoric”

  1. Anonymous
    November 21st, 2011 @ 4:54 am

    Such certainty over ahistorical assumptions.

  2. Anonymous
    November 21st, 2011 @ 4:55 am

    Good idea.

  3. Anonymous
    November 21st, 2011 @ 4:57 am

    “…there is no ‘Afghanistan’ only a bunch of warring tribes…”

    All the more reason to get out. The West has been trying to change Afghanistan since Alexander of Macedon; without much success.

  4. Pathfinder
    November 21st, 2011 @ 7:30 am

    Ron Paul/Allen West…Charge Allen West with keeping Ron Paul grounded in reality when Paul gets way too ideologically pure.

    A far-fetched notion definitely, but I like it better than say a Mitt Romney/Rick Perry ticket.

  5. ThePaganTemple
    November 21st, 2011 @ 8:46 am

    By definition you don’t get “kicked out” by the people you are “occupying”, at least not peacefully.

  6. Jorge Emilio Emrys Landivar
    November 21st, 2011 @ 11:10 am

    80%?  That makes him better than most of the rest of the republicans and democrats then, I imagine.

  7. Jorge Emilio Emrys Landivar
    November 21st, 2011 @ 11:10 am

    Yes…
    …but also the large war spending.

  8. Jorge Emilio Emrys Landivar
    November 21st, 2011 @ 11:12 am

    “If we aren’t adhering to the Constitution, file suit in federal court.  If you are correct, you will win.”

    No, actually.  No one has standing in court to make the US withdraw from foreign invasions.  Sorry, but the courts don’t work the way you think.

  9. Jorge Emilio Emrys Landivar
    November 21st, 2011 @ 11:14 am

    “You might want to consider the ramifications of having China, India, Pakistan, North Korea, South Korea and Japan all nuclear powers staring at each other and contesting with one another over control of undersea resources and border regions.”

    If history is any suggestion, it will lead to peace.  Nuclear capability after all was what kept the US and the Soviets from all out war.

  10. The Wondering Jew
    November 21st, 2011 @ 12:01 pm

    Bruce– I don’t have much use for  “Compassionate Conervatives” orthe neocons. The neocons bankrupted us through an unnecessarily aggressive military posture. They joined with the “compassionate conservatives” to accuse traditional conservative of being “bigots” and frequently sided with our enemies on key questions of policy.  I don’t have much use for “compassionate conservatives” either but at least they weren’t trying to excommunicate their conservative betters from the movement like the neocons did.

  11. » Ron Paul Partially Blames US For 9/11
    November 21st, 2011 @ 12:15 pm

    […] Smitty at The Other McCain writes: Let me form my objection to Paul as a question: when should you ever take your enemy’s […]

  12. ThePaganTemple
    November 21st, 2011 @ 3:52 pm

    Wrong, Carter was just as strong as any of the other numbnuts before him. In fact, he might have been a little stronger than most of them. Remember, Carter was actually the one who started opposing the Soviets in Afghanistan, and giving aid to the Mujahadeen. Reagan just continued Carter’s policies but increased the amount of aid by a hell of a lot. Carter even sent Brezhinsky to meet with the Muhahadeen. So no, we didn’t accomplish jack shit before Reagan. In fact, we actually helped them in myriads of ways, including giving them time to build up their forces while they were pretending to “negotiate”. It was all a lot of shit, and Reagan knew that. Prior to him, most State Department bureaucrats looked at the Soviets as the superior power, simply because they weren’t as constrained ethically as we were, nor were they hindered, as they saw it, by such inconvenient factors as the constitution and the rule of law.

  13. ThePaganTemple
    November 21st, 2011 @ 3:54 pm

    Any time you see somebody bring up Sun Tzu you’re looking at a leftist.

  14. ThePaganTemple
    November 21st, 2011 @ 4:25 pm

    Yeah he’s light years away from most of the rest of us. I’d put him somewhere just this side of Betelguese.

  15. ThePaganTemple
    November 21st, 2011 @ 4:27 pm

    I’m not a big fan of the Neocons either, and attacking their opponents as antisemites always sounded to me like just another classic charge of raaaaacism.