See Ya Dubya

Earlier this morning I came across an article in which Ron Paul was explaining that he thinks we should just leave Iraq.

I mean, we just went in and we went in erroneously. We went in without the proper authority. We went in under a false pretense and all the conditions that were claimed didn’t exist. It’s going badly. So I think we should just leave.

That reminded me of a clip that I had seen a few weeks ago of Paul being interviewed about his views on our involvement in Iraq. The interview was taped back in 2002 as the decision to go to Iraq was being made. It took a bit of searching to find, but YouTube came through. The entire interview is good, Paul makes many good points throughout. He made one point in particular that I thought was worth mentioning.

While talking about the dangers inherent in a policy of making preemptive strikes, he says that as one of the largest and most powerful countries the rest of the world pays attention to how America solves foreign relations problems. If we start making preemptive strikes, we can’t expect China or Pakistan or Korea, who each now have nuclear arms, to seek a peaceful resolution when confronted with difficulty.

“If the preemptive strike becomes institutionalized not only for us but for the world, that means that the next time the Pakistanis might commit an act of terror against the Indians, the Indians might just say, this is the reason we have to go ahead.”

If you’re interested in watching the interview yourself, its broken up into two separate parts (one, two). The statement that I’ve just quoted here is made 1:21 into part two of the interview.

I have to say, I have a lot of respect for Ron Paul. Around 3:12 in the first of those two clips, he makes the statement that he holds his commitment to the constitution above the political pressure coming from the President or his party. That is awesome. I can’t say for sure whether or not I’ll vote for him, but I definitely like him. Whatever you think of his position on various issues, the man is consistent