AMERICA’S INTERVENTIONIST FOLLY BREEDS CALLS FOR … MORE INTERVENTION
By Ron Paul || In 2006, I invited the late General Bill Odom to address my Thursday Congressional luncheon group. General Odom, a former NSA director, called the Iraq war “the greatest strategic disaster in American history,” and told the surprised audience that he could not understand why Congress had not impeached the president for pushing this disaster on the United States. History continues to prove the General’s assessment absolutely correct.
In September, 2002, arguing against a U.S. attack on Iraq, I said the following on the House Floor:
“No credible evidence has been produced that Iraq has or is close to having nuclear weapons. No evidence exists to show that Iraq harbors al Qaeda terrorists. Quite to the contrary, experts on this region recognize Hussein as an enemy of the al Qaeda and a foe to Islamic fundamentalism.”
Unfortunately, Congress did not listen.
As we know, last week the second largest city in Iraq, Mosul, fell to the al-Qaeda allied Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Last week an al-Qaeda that had not been in Iraq before our 2003 invasion threatened to move on the capitol, Baghdad, after it easily over-ran tens of thousands of Iraqi military troops.
The same foreign policy “experts” who lied us into the Iraq war are now telling us we must re-invade Iraq to deal with the disaster caused by their invasion! They cannot admit they were wrong about the invasion being a “cakewalk” that would pay for itself, so they want to blame last week’s events on the 2011 U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. But the trouble started with the 2003 invasion itself, not the 2011 troop withdrawal. Anyone who understands cause and effect should understand this.
The Obama administration has said no option except for ground troops is off the table to help the Iraqi government in this crisis. We should not forget, however, that the administration does not consider Special Forces or the CIA to be “boots on the ground.” So we may well see Americans fighting in Iraq again.
It is also likely that the administration will begin shipping more weapons and other military equipment to the Iraqi army, in the hopes that they might be able to address the ISIS invasion themselves. After years of U.S. training, costing as much as $20 billion, it is unlikely the Iraqi army is up to the task. Judging from the performance of the Iraqi military as the ISIS attacked, much of that money was wasted or stolen.
A big U.S. government weapons transfer to Iraq will no doubt be favored by the U.S. military-industrial complex, which stands to profit further from the Iraq meltdown. This move will also be favored by those in Washington who realize how politically unpopular a third U.S. invasion of Iraq would be at home, but who want to “do something” in the face of the crisis. Shipping weapons may be an action short of war, but it usually leads to war. And as we have already seen in Iraq and Syria, very often these weapons fall into the hands of the al-Qaeda we are supposed to be fighting!
Because of the government’s foolish policy of foreign interventionism, the U.S. is faced with two equally stupid choices: either pour in resources to prop up an Iraqi government that is a close ally with Iran, or throw our support in with al-Qaeda in Iraq (as we have done in Syria). I say we must follow a third choice: ally with the American people and spend not one more dollar or one more life attempting to re-make the Middle East. Haven’t we have already done enough damage?
Ron Paul is a former U.S. Congressman from Texas and the leader of the pro-liberty, pro-free market movement in the United States. His weekly column – reprinted with permission – can be found here.
91 comments
.I watched the movie ‘Lone Survivor’ last night with family and am so proud to be an American and thankful for brave military
Then I check in with FITS and see that racist Ron Paul is espousing the same foreign policy as the Obama regime-surrender end empower our enemies.
Ron and Rand are as dangerous as muslim Obama and the band of radical Islamists supporters that occupy the ‘people’s House.
You watched a movie. Now you’re ready to slander everybody who opposes your limited worldview.
Go ahead, beat those drums of war. You be the first to sign up.
You prefer the Lindsey Graham type of politician? Continuing to be a mouthpiece for the war machine who will destroy this country to enrich himself.
Is that your preference? Wake up.
“You watched a movie. Now you’re ready to slander everybody who opposes your limited worldview.”
That about sums up the mentality of most of the flag wavers in our country.
Never will they question the motives, let alone efficacy of our government. Many will claim they are for “limited government” while cheering on interventionism around the world, military & flag worship, etc. et al.
They’ll tell a veteran how proud they are of him while the guy sits in a wheelchair with no limbs after having them blown off in some country that he’ll never return to and for no concrete reasoning other than the mythical “let’s fight them over there”.
He’ll get a couple of medals, a few slaps on the back…but years later with no ability to earn an income and no one left to tell him he “did the right thing” he’ll join the ranks of able bodied soldiers already contemplating suicide en masse in the military(suicides in the military are currently rampant, use google) because deep down inside they know that the multiple overseas campaigns aren’t working(just like Vietnam & now Iraq) and the “cause” was dubious to start in most cases, let alone the daily war making those on the front have to deal with.
Once the bases in Afghanistan were destroyed and most of Al Qaeda dispersed, we could have brought most the boys home and conducted intelligence killing to mop up those left over time.
Of course, let’s not forgot that 95% of the hijackers came from Saudi Arabia….and we have yet to wage an all out military campaign there.
If Sandi has just the slightest amount of decency, let alone intelligence, it would consider all these factors before cheering on our warmaking government’s committal of our youths lives to such ventures….but it doesn’t have either.
It just waves the flag, sings songs, watches movies & feels good inside every time there’s an NFL game with a military flyover and some young men dressed nicely marching with flags in hand.
You are one poor fucked up individual. I feel sorry for you.
Feel sorry for the veterans who come back damaged physically & mentally, then you can hate on me once you’ve fixed that problem.
Actually he nailed it right on the head. This flag waving lets go invade a country for no reason and get thousands of our soldiers killed and maimed for nothing like we did in Iraq has to stop.
Yeah. I watched a movie.It was entertaining however it did not change my worldview. My worldview was shaped years ago by a Christian college professor that taught history from a Biblical Christian perspective.Unlike babbling, socialist,marxist fool’s like you and Obama my worldview was not shaped by the media and American hating Vietnam era tenured professors at state controlled schools.
We were all actually in tears last night as we realized we that the pResident , a closet muslim and sympathizer of radical Islam INCLUDING the muslim brotherhood, has created this vacuum in the middle east in support of these terrorists.What other reason could there be?
People like Ron and Rand Paul just give him cover.
You’re problem IS very clear: The world is not America and suggesting their traditions are backward only makes US look like bullies and thugs. They’re good people of ALL faiths, but having us show THEM the RIGHT WAY is not putting ourselves in their shoes, (to borrow from Max Weber.) Hell, teach them English while we’re at it…right?
A war loving Christian! Awesome!
I don’t love war.Unlike you however history tells us we need to defend ourselves against threats to our country from the likes of a Hitler and like thinking dictators/tyrants.We shall not surrender despite those like yourself that despise this nation and seek to destroy its economic,military and moral/cultural foundations.
You Christ haters and mockers of Jesus keep sending all of your ‘sheep in wolves clothing’, Tom Ervin types to defeat us. We shall prevail!
“Unlike you however history tells us we need to defend ourselves against threats to our country from the likes of a Hitler and like thinking dictators/tyrants.”
You know what’s interesting about history and stuff? The argument above is the EXACT justification Hitler used for preemptive war.
In the mean time, since you are a God fearing person, maybe you can explain to me how preemptively “defending yourself” meshes with Jesus’s instruction to “turn the other cheek” eh?
I appreciate your learned help. Btw, don’t quote Aquinas, well, because he’s not Jesus among other things.
Yes those Iraqis sure needed to be invaded didn’t they? After all they….. hey wait a minute they never did a dam thing to us.
Onward Christian soldiers, slaughtering the innocent for cash on the barrel head.
‘slaughtering the innocent for cash on the barrel head’?
You must be talking about the Democrat Party , Planned Parenthood , Obama and the millions of abortions a year they perform and support.
I’m talking about you and your war hawking buddies. Bless your heart.
I bet you are a good Christian too aren’t you? You sound like a raving lunatic like most of our Christians from the south.
He/She would never sign up. Typical Chicken Hawk.
What empowers our enemies is forced occupation of a nation, toppling its government (which we had a hand in installing), installing a new government (which will totally work this time!), blowing innocent people up via unmanned drones, etc.
You know what leaving people the fuck alone empowers? People who want to leave us the fuck alone.
A government we installed? I’m guessing you don’t pay much attention to foreign affairs. That gov’t wasn’t who we necessarily wanted, but the Iraqi people voted them in.
And at this point, whether we should have gone into Iraq is a worthless conversation to have. It happened, right or wrong. Now we have to fix that mess and by fix it, I don’t mean just leave it like we did Viet Nam and turn a blind eye to the fact that 2 million civilians were massacred when we left. Or when we helped Afghanistan drive out the Soviets only to let them try to rebuild on their own. How’d all that work out?
Now we have to fix that mess …
“We”, who, Paleface?
‘okay’ made a couple of good points.
‘We’ all know dem/soc are chomping at the bit for another 9/11 attack so they can blame W. Bush before 2016.
‘We’ means the The United States of America needs to fix this by cleaning up Obama’s mess in Iraq before ‘We’ are attacked again by the terrorists that Obama is releasing or letting across the border in Mexico.
I don’t think you got the point. We tried cleaning up a mess in 2003 and look what it got us. Haven’t you learned?
“Haven’t you learned?”
Nope, but in fairness to her idiocy she represents a good percentage of the electorate and the state of humanity over written history.
Sorry there but the mess in Iraq is all on Bush and his staff. Obama had nothing to do with Iraq he just inherited a giant mess from that nincompoop Bush.
We voted in our government too. America voted for change. They voted for an end to neocon insanity. Instead they got another neocon and the same shit they were getting under Bush and Cheney.
That’s because people who vote are retarded.
Only an idiot doesn’t know whomever the establishment puts as the ending candidates, are bound to be identical.
“And at this point, whether we should have gone into Iraq is a worthless conversation to have.”
Not really. It should be a major talking point on whether to go back in or not, or in other words, should we double down on stupid? Or perhaps you’d prefer the discussion being referred to as “will we fall for the sunken cost fallacy?”
I’m guessing Sandi Morals has stock in Halliburton or worships at the Fox,Limbaugh alter…. and if not then he/she should load up the entire family and head to Iraq to help fight…..take LG with you.
Be glad to do it if you will load your family up and take your American hating, sorry asses to live in one of the dictatorships or radical Islamist ‘states’ you support.
That is funny stuff, Sandi! What our interventionalism has accomplished, is to get more and better weapons into the hands of people who would one day become our enemies (back in the 80’s) and people who are NOW are enemies (in the here and now). Oh, and we got the added “bonus” of killing, maiming, and destroying some of our best and brightest young men and women in the process. Great stuff, huh?
This bullshit about “bringing Democracy” to these third-world shitholes is a joke. They are incapable of governing themselves, always have been and likely always will be. Saddam was an asshole, no doubt. Still, it took someone like him to keep a lid on the rampant fucktardery of the people and factions found in that country and others like it. We need to learn to leave stuff the hell alone.
Thank you for making my point.
Obama got rid of Sadamn Insane and Mubarck to install the radical Islamists in Libya and Egypt.
The chickens are comin home to roost!
“Obama got rid of Sadamn Insane and Mubarck to install the radical Islamists in Libya and Egypt.
The chickens are comin home to roost!”
” Following George W. Bush’s precedents in Iraq, POTUS Obama helped depose Gaddafi and Mubarak, facilitating the rise to power of radical Islamists in Libya and Egypt.
Though, the end results were the same, POTUS Obama was able to achieve his results at afraction of what it cost POTUS Bush in money, casualties and American esteem.
Puck….puck….puck…..puuuuuucccckkkkkk!”
Fixed it for ya!
LMAO! MUSLIM-POTUS Obama got rid of Gaddafi and Mubarck to allow radical Islamists and the muslim brotherhood to fill that vacuum.
Now Iran can gain a stronghold in Iraq and Israel will be next on MUSLIM-POTUS Obama’s ‘Destruction of the Middle East for Allah’ Tour.
Did Tango lose his computer privileges?
We think his Multiple Personality Syndrome dial has shifted.
Actually Obama is a Christian like you!! Scary thought isn’t it. Except he isn’t nearly as crazy you.
Um are you completely void of all reality? BUSH GOT RID OF SADDAM and screwed up the whole country.
Um are you completely void of all reality? BUSH GOT RID OF SADDAM and screwed up the whole country.
You are a caricature of the flag-waving, Miller-Lite drinking, good old patriot.
You are the people that are destroying our country and making the rest of the world hate us, yes YOU.
Ever see M*A*S*H? Glad to know N.K. and S.K. have patched things up…oh, wait, what?
Watched a movie???like “Argo” perhaps. Where hollywood turned Canadians into Americans.what a moronic thing to say…it’s not the soldiers..its the US govt that by poking it’s long nose always into some country or the other has committed the genocide of an entire nation i.e Iraq and is trying to do in Syria.All this because these nations would not back the Petro-Dollar.Thats the only truth.expecting you to understand it,would be asking too much given your source of world politics(Movies!!..puke)
Huh? Damn.Why not just blame Climate Change?
What is the frequency, Charlie?
Twilight zone buddy!
Are you in a mental institution right now? Or did you escape?
Amen: For America to have a friendly-government presence in Iraq, in the midst of a HELL-Hole Muslim snake-pit, is worth millions in lives and Trillions of dollars.
Shortsighted, Islam-monster-centric idiots like RonPaul and FITS, are the @$$-Backward head-buriers of our day…
For America to have a friendly-government presence in Iraq, in the midst of a HELL-Hole Muslim snake-pit, is worth millions in lives and Trillions of dollars.
Too bad George H. W. Bush fucked that up, eh?
No.muslim Obama did.Just like he did by installing the muslim brotherhood in Egypt and Al Queda in Libya.
Well, Annie, get yer gun!
US government installed Al Queda in Iraq and Libya by overthrowing dictators who kept them out. If you think Kadaffi or Sadam would share power with Al Queda, you are dumber than a certain congressman (John McCain) who argued at length to arm ISIS (same as sunni rebels) to fight in Syria.
Bush wrongly invaded Iraq and let Al Queda in. Obama bombed Libya and supported a coup and let Al Queda in.
I hate mindless trolls who post BS as if Obama, doing the same thing as Bush, actually leads to a different result.
Also, I know a little something about the middle east, and even I, along with millions of others, knew it was going to end badly for the USA to take over Iraq. I refuse to believe our government knew less than me. They knew, they just did not care. Typical Chaney attitude. They all have it, it is just he was upfront when he said he did not care what the american people thought.
You are blind on liberal-tarian Bull-S#!* if you believe that TBG.
Carter may have set the chaos in motion in the late 70s, but ll any Bush ever did was try to clam it. And W succeeded to a large degree, until Obama F*#ked that up.
You are wrong.
TBG is <a href="http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2014/06/14/washingtons-iraq-victory-paul-craig-roberts/". correct.
Imagine that!
Yes, it is so much better to keep arming our (future and present) enemies than to just stay the hell out, isn’t it?
Right on…maybe he should watch The Marx Bros.?
Democrats and Republicans:
* Support Al Queda in Afghanistan against Russia – same attack us on 9-11.
* Support Albanian Al Queda in Kosovo helping. Same are accused of cutting out the organs of prisoners to sell.
* Support Iraq in attacking Iran. Now are about to do the opposite.
* Support sunni rebels in Syria, same as ISIS. John McCain arguing hard for giving them weapons and support. These are same that are now in Iraq.
* Support real life Nazi’s in Kosovo who still worship Hitler in their fight for a non-russian Kosovo.
* Made up reasons to invade Iraq and created the opportunity for Al Queda to enter and grow.
Democrats and Republicans are Al Queda’s best friend. Ron Paul has never supported anything that would have helped them – which is what Democrats and Republicans do. Reason why? Because Democrats and Republicans apparently have no principals nor vision. They will in the moment support anybody. They invented the use of proxy wars.
Invading Iraq was a massive blunder. Bush lied to Congress, to the UN and to the world about WMD’s. We murdered over 1.2 million Iraqi civilians(mostly women and children) We blew up their power stations, their sewage treatment and water treatment plants, in fact we blew up everything just about. Now they have no power, no water, no toilet, no jobs etc etc The country has no security and they are afraid they will get kidnapped or blown up by terrorists. The country is about to be taken over by religious extremists which there were none of in Iraq before Bush and the Neocons got the bright idea to invade. So you watched a fictional bull**** story that is totally fake and you are proud of our military now. That is great I am sure all the dead Iraqi children would be happy for you.
There is no lesson to learn because the whole point of perpetual war is to let defense contractors make billions of dollars. Constant interventionism makes the MIC a turnkey operation. The lives lost, livelihoods destroyed, and decades of turmoil in the region creates is a cost they largely ignore as it doesn’t actually affect the number in their bank accounts.
tell that to the brilliant neocons like Wolfowitz
Following your premise socialist Smirks, the whole point of perpetual welfare is to let the federal government make TRILLIONS of dollars, control peoples lives and their VOTES!
I love it when you dem/socialists expose yourselves as the radical, non-thinkers you truly are.
The whole Iraq fiasco is the Neocons fault.
This is exactly correct. This is also why little actually changes when Democrats or Republicans have control. They’re all owned.
The overreaching goal is not money–though it might be for some–it is world empire. People like Cheney want to do what no one has yet managed to do, to place the entire world under one government that they will then control. America is just their base of operations. They have no loyalty to it whatsoever.
Kumbaya my lord, kumbaya
Kumbaya my lord, kumbaya
Kumbaya my lord, kumbaya
Oh lord, kumbaya
Someone’s singing lord, kumbaya
Someone’s singing lord, kumbaya
Someone’s singing lord, kumbaya
Oh lord, kumbayah
Someone’s laughing, lord, kumbaya
Someone’s laughing, lord, kumbaya
Someone’s laughing, lord, kumbaya
Oh lord, kumbaya
Someone’s crying, lord, kumbaya
Someone’s crying, lord, kumbaya
Someone’s crying, lord, kumbaya
Oh lord, kumbaya
Someone’s praying, lord, kumbaya
Someone’s praying, lord, kumbaya
Someone’s praying, lord, kumbaya
Oh lord, kumbaya
Someone’s sleeping, lord, kumbaya
Someone’s sleeping, lord, kumbaya
Someone’s sleeping, lord, kumbaya
Oh lord, kumbaya
Oh lord, kumbaya
TBG sees your “Kumbaya” and raises you … “The Golden Rule.”
“The Golden Rule” will earn you boos from Neocons, with blood dripping from their fangs as they cleanse their pallets with the tears from children.
*palates
The Golden Rule” will earn you boos from Neocons,
That was TBG’s reference.
…cleanse their pallets
Trying to make TBG hit the fire-water early today, are we?
Lieutenant General Odom was a Cold War wonk and Soviet Union expert who after falling out of political favor because his expertise was no longer needed began to lash out at his former supporters. His most notorious quote “…An attempt to extort Congress into providing funds by keeping U.S. forces in peril….surely would constitute the ‘high crime’ of squandering the lives of soldiers and Marines for his own personal interest…” clearly shows his animus to the Bush administration. You can accuse GW of a long of things but “war profiteer” would be a stretch by any standard.
Does he have some valid points – certainly, most armchair quarterbacks do.
We ruined Iraq the place had no terrorists there before Bush got the bright idea to invade. Now the entire country is destroyed and full of terrorists and about to be taken over by them.
Sunnis and Shia going at it again? Airdrop all the weapons possible right in the middle. Set up tents and food on the borders for refugees. Then airdrop in more weapons.
And they’ll think about dropping them on Christians…repeat as necessary…
Hunger Games, middle eastern style.
Tony Blair: “…Even if you’d left Saddam in place in 2003, then when 2011 happened – and you had the Arab revolutions going through Tunisia and Libya and Yemen and Bahrain and Egypt and Syria – you would have still had a major problem in Iraq,”
lol….yea…you’d have still had the problem except without the loss of all those American lives and money.
And Iraq wouldn’t be ruined and full of terrorists
I love the way it’s all Obama’s fault – like he invaded Iraq in 2003, disbanded the Iraqi army that same year, gave the Shi’ites the ability to vote in a new government in 2004, fudged up the occupation 2005 – 2007, put in power a worthless government or anything else. We left because a) the Iraqi government could get an agreement passed by their Parliment that would exempt US soldiers from being tried in Iraqi courts (because of the great guns for hire we had that went around shooting civilians), b) the American people wanted out. This was Bush’s disaster, and now we’re all stuck with it. This is more Lindsey Graham’s fault than Obama’s. (Though he is a daper dresser).
Actually we know have a huge opportunity. We can entice the Iranians to become our new ally, eventually get them entrance back into the world system, get them access to European market for gas sales (marginalize Puckin), and isolate and destroy ISIS. So Iraq becomes some secondary “friend.”
In the meantime – I would like to point out that our “great American ally Israel” isn’t doing anythign to help us out here – as usual. Once again, they prove to be a hollow ally.
Israel is helping ‘us’ out. They expose the Obama regime everyday as the radical Islamist , muslim brotherhood supporting fools they truly are. Why would they trust Obama? He wants em to disappear.
My sources in West Palm Beach tell me Obama and the Democratic Party are losing support in the Jewish community.
My sources in West Palm Beach tell me Obama and the Democratic Party are losing support in the Jewish community.
TBG is planning to Skype with Sheldon Adelson, Donald Sterling and Alan Dershowitz tonight, he’ll get back to you tomorrow.
You so funny.
“are losing support in the Jewish community.”
.
Another Bernie Maddoff?
If they are Jewish, they wouldn’t be caught dead in WEST Palm Beach. Palm Beach is for the wealthy, West is for the help.
ISIS got their arms and their recruits through Obama’s war in Syria. They were sent by US ‘allies’ in the gulf as well as the US (Obama). Obama did nothing to stop them from sending arms. When Bush left the Sunni Arabs were organized into effective Awaking Councils that had already dealt with the Baathists. Obama basically abdicated all responsibility and allowed al Maliki to abuse and disenfranchise the Arab Sunnis. Yes! This is 100% Obama’s fault!
Instead of trying to make ppl think u r smart( we all have Google to look this stuff up btw) think about the lives that have been lost on both sides. It is the entire government fault not one side or the other. Try sending your own family in to get the Iranians on our side if u think its such a great idea.
Um no Bush was President and he lied to Congress, the UN, to America and the world about WMD’s in Iraq. This was all his doing everything that has happened after is because of Bush/Cheney and the rest of the war criminal staff.
Was that taken in front of a chipoltle?
No, Home Depot. The weed eaters are in the pickup trucks behind the rocket launchers.
It warms my heart to see the spread of the central tenet of democracy – open carry.
Maybe we can find the WMD’s this time. But hey, what’s a few more American lives trying to save a group that already hates us. If you’re Republican it is the thing to do after all it’s not your sons and daughters that get sent to war.
There is a reason why present-day Iraq was three separate vilayets during the rule of the Ottoman Empire. There are distinct ethnic and religious divisions in the Babylonian region that require either complete independence or authoritarian rule for even semi-stability to occur. That the American public is shocked by the current situation is only a sign of its idiocy. Many of those who opposed both Desert Shield and the Second Iraq War, Ron Paul included, understand that, contrary to our government’s claim that Saddam and Al Qaeda were allies, the biggest internal threat to Middle Eastern strongmen is Islamic fundamentalists. And there is no better recruiting weapon for these fundamentalists than America’s presence in Iraq and its systematic killing of innocent Iraqi civilians. Neoconservatives, in their messianic desire to spread American Exceptionalism and our system of government through force, are blind to the political and historical realities of the region. That’s the problem with any messianic dogma: it’s entirely devoid of fact.
Too bad Paul is not our president instead of the neocon puppet Obama.
Ron Paul is the truth. And leave it up to the idiot followers who believe what they are told to believe by the Mainstream Media to not realize Obama = GWB = Status Quo Corporate Owned Politician.
The war criminals in the Bush administration lied about the pretexts and reasons for their preemptive, illegal and unconstitutional invasion of Iraq, aided by the disinformation and propaganda by regime stenographers in the establishment mainstream media to hoodwink and bamboozle the hapless American electorate. The lies and dissembling concerning the war of aggression in Iraq have continued by Obama and his cohort.
Here are several vitally important online articles regarding US imperial policies in the Middle East that attentive readers may have missed.
In particular note the detailed maps putting forth the strategic formation for a new Middle East under the hegemony of the US and its Saudi and Israeli partners. What is going on presently has long been planned:
The Engineered Destruction and Political Fragmentation of Iraq: Towards the Creation of a US Sponsored Islamist Caliphate;
Was ISIS’s Plunder of Mosul an Insider Job?;
Plans for Redrawing the Middle East: The Project for a “New Middle East;”
Resurgence of Al Qaeda in Iraq, Fuelled by Saudi Arabia; and
Al Qaeda: The Database.