Alright y'all welcome back to the show It's anti-war radio I'm Scott Horton and our next guest on the show today is dr.
Ron Paul He's a congressman representing district 14 on Texas Gulf Coast He's the author of a foreign policy of freedom the revolution a manifesto and and the Fed among others You can find his archives at Lou Rockwell calm and at anti-war calm and we're very happy to welcome him back to the show Hey Ron, how are you doing doing?
Well Scott.
Thank you.
I'm very happy to have you here So first things first big news today.
There's a skirmish in Korea apparently started by the North the South retaliated to her dead 16 wounded and I think the world wants to know if Ron Paul had won the presidency in 2008 What would your Korea policy be and how different might this situation be this morning?
Well, I'd be pretty much ignore the whole thing and I'd continue to work on bringing our troops home by this time though if a Good president had been elected he'd have had the troops out of Korea and we wouldn't have been involved in this Assumption that we were automatically going to go to war if there's a war over there is ridiculous You know war is supposed to be very very Cautiously done and only done with a declaration But this idea that we sign treaty space and troops and assume that no matter what happens We're going to be in the midst of war There's no idea that North Korea is going to be a danger to America or South Korea is total nonsense They're having a little border skirmish there Compared to the skirmishes going on between Mexico and the United States.
It's it's rather minor, you know, so This whole idea that we have to show our muscle and come down hard the neighborhood should take care of it Maybe Japan wants to have something to say about if something flares up South Korea is so powerful They can handle themselves and China may have an interest in settling things down, too but the United States has no business over there is not in our best interest and The sooner we realize that and get out of there the better off would be All right now if George Bush had not undone Bill Clinton's agreed framework deal from 1994 Which basically said we'll give them light water reactors that won't produce weapons grade material will bribe them with Fuel oil and with money if they will just promise to stay within the nonproliferation treaty and their safeguards agreement If that deal was still on and you were the president right now Would you continue under that deal or you'd go ahead and and write that off as well?
Well, that's messy too, you know if they do what we tell them we're going to give them some benefits if they don't do What we tell us we're going to threaten with bombs I don't I don't like those options, but I would try to work toward, you know new, you know normalizing things to talk to talk to them and trade with them and if there's something that can be done to develop You know peaceful use of nuclear power with with with guidelines I think that's worth talking about but to have something to say well if you do this We're going to send you this and give you some benefits.
I Don't think we need to do that.
I think that things have been worked out in other countries, you know Around the world.
So I think we you know should have left that that open at least But I think we should have this other option rather than just either bomb them or or bribe them so in other words just promise not to go to war with them or not not promise not to start one and Drop all the sanctions try to open up trade and just treat them like a normal country Yeah, and you know, we should have done that with Cuba a long time ago and you know I saw some good statistics here Although that we haven't normalized things with Cuba the amount the amount of you know Farm products were selling in the Cuba now is really doing pretty good and we need to continue in that movement So that's that's been argued by many especially the founders of our country that if you trade with people You're not likely this as likely to fight with them All right.
Now we have a war on terrorism going under the authorization.
He is military force Supposedly at least from after the September 11th attack, but I was wondering with your position the House of Representatives Is there any way that you could try to pass a Boland type amendment that would forbid Barack Obama from spending American?tax dollars or printed dollars Waging war in Yemen or Somalia or Pakistan since those are not official wars, but we seem to be waging them anyway Well, you know, it's a shame that the Boland amendment had to be passed I don't think I was there when that was voted on but I would have supported it, but that's the Constitution They're not supposed to do those things.
You're not supposed to be involved in war unless the Congress approves it so It's not that another Boland amendment dealing with the Middle East.
That's not going to happen because the Republican leadership and even their program that they Circulated before the election Was was sort of bragging that they would support Obama and almost anything that they would do so the Republicans would never Bring up a Boland type of amendment And and the Democrats aren't going to bring it up and it couldn't get passed So it's tragic that we even have to think of them on those terms but it's based on the assumption that our presidents are going to act outside of the Constitution that they're going to wage war secretly and You know, it's so bad now that even if we denied them official funding You know at times they can raise money in in banking in the drug war.
They can raise money by finagling the Federal Reserve Ability to subsidize foreign countries all kind of things that they can do government's out of control But we should do our very best to try to get the control back Well, if you were sitting on the National Security Council right now advising Obama, what would you tell them about Yemen and Somalia?
There are bad guys there apparently You know, I'm just like I'm home, you know, maybe Even if they're bad guys in Yemen, they have to deal with them I mean, they're bad guys in the United States and and they might even be foreign-born But you know, if there's somebody from Yemen here in the United States and he causes a crime We don't call up Yemen and say, you know You gotta get over here and take care of this guy, you know, we arrest them and we try them We we don't expect them to come over here and pick them up and take them back home So if there are bad people over there, they should take care of it And of course the hostility directed toward the United States would be greatly reduced If we realized and understood what blowback is all about and and why people do want to harm us Well, that's a very important point something we talked about at length with Tom Englehart about Chalmers Johnson His book blowback on the show yesterday And of course people remember you confronting Rudy Giuliani about that with the simple truth, right?
That history began before September 11th.
That wasn't the start of this war.
That was just one step in it Now I think I think the worst I think we're in a 20-year war now.
It's up next year.
I think the We embarked on this, you know after we sort of encouraged her or at least said we wouldn't be concerned if Saddam Hussein went into Kuwait and Settled their border dispute on who owns some oil wells down there.
So when we invaded Kuwait and went up into into Iraq and continued bombing for 10 years and starved and So many of their people now, that's the beginning.
It's been going on for 20 years now And I'm in the process right now of trying to Label exactly how much that cost was which is hard, you know, whether it's a financial cost lost jobs You know debt that we have lives our lives of our American soldiers That has been lost though.
It's been it's been long gone gone for a long time And I think it's expanding Obama hasn't loaded up one bit.
I mean he's taken into Pakistan He's into Yemen and they want to go to Iran and they don't hesitate to threaten North Korea So it's ongoing and that the real tragedy is I never believed I lived to the believe it That our our leaders would actually be so bold as to say well You know war sometimes can help you get out of a bad economic situation We knew those ideas floating around but they're a little bit more blunt than I like, you know that A war is actually helpful, which is insanity because it really doesn't war always hurts the economy Well, yeah, David Broder the dean of the Washington Press Corps Ran article in The Washington Post like that recently and apparently George Bush had made a comment like that to I think the president of Argentina or something, but You pointed out many times Osama bin Laden said his plan was to bleed us to bankruptcy He understands real economics apparently and and that's what he said, right?
Was that he was trying to get a reaction out of us to bog us down and break our empire in Afghanistan Just like they did with our help against the Soviet Union in the 1980s.
Yeah, and he opposed at the time Yeah, he even implied, you know, they they were they weren't going to concentrate on coming to to our shores He said fine you come we'll fight you on our land And I think he also made the statement of them, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, dr.
Paul hold it right there everybody It's Ron Paul.
It's anti-war radio.
We'll be right back after this All right, so we're going back to the show Santa I wore radio.
I'm Scott.
I'm talking my hero.
Dr. Ron Paul.
You might remember him back in 2008 he gave the greatest speaking tour on behalf of individual liberty and peace in the history of mankind and We're crossing our fingers and hoping he reprises that role in the next presidential term, I won't make you answer me now though, dr Paul I'm sorry So when the break kicked in you were in the middle of a point about Osama bin Laden trying to lure us into Afghanistan to bankrupt our Empire Yeah, I I think he was rather clear on that that maybe at least to me He was implying that maybe they don't have to plan another attack on You know in this country because we're right over there It just think after we went over there and to his surprise we went in the end of those country wholesale They said there were a lot of targets So he's killed 6,000 of our people and you know, there were no al-qaeda in Iraq before we got there You know, we pretended we were going in there, but Saddam Hussein didn't permit al-qaeda there now there is al-qaeda in Iraq There's still a problem there.
Yeah, and and of course the country is a mess.
They say oh, yeah, we're on the verge One of these days we're gonna have them have a government, but we continue to build bases there the resentment The resentment is strong There were no weapons of mass destruction.
There are close ally, you know of Iran As bad as Saddam Hussein was his balance of power said that he had to tolerate and protect Christians So there was a million there were a million Christians that lived there Peacefully and now more than half have been routed and they expect that the rest will be routed So are going in along with the help of the the British actually dechristianized You know a place where Christians had lived for one of the longest times in all of history So the achievement is a disaster and they're bragging about how wonderful it is in the expense in terms of dollars and lives lost And of course collateral damage over there is is unbelievable So I think Osama bin Laden, you know sits back and looks and say well, you know, he's still achieving it He's bringing on our bankruptcy and the Americans are stupid enough.
They're destroying their own liberties Then they see, you know, it's almost like Osama bin Laden is enjoying what the what the TSA is doing to us so But it's our fault.
But also there's a rising outcry right now So I think the American people are beginning to wake up, you know And I think that's something about what's going on with the Tea Party movement There is a healthy resistance to what's happening right now after all their Democrat wars now what's to believe in there for a Republican, right?
For sure.
Well, I'm not sure if you saw this but Rolling Stone published an interview with one of Osama bin Laden's sons Just a couple of months back where he says in plain English This was my father's dream was to lure the United States into Afghanistan to bleed them bankruptcy and destroy them like the Soviet Union Yeah, you'd wonder you'd wonder why the American people wouldn't pay attention to those kind of statements and think well Maybe our foreign policy is flawed But no, there's too much control on what the people see actually But as far as foreign policy goes most Americans probably don't even care, you know, they don't pay that much attention to it That's why I sort of like the TSA issue because the pictures of this Groping and the abuse is is front and center.
It's on on our TVs today and everybody heard about it and it's so Abusive that I think American people in the same boy Maybe things are as bad as some of us have been saying so I think that this helps wake up more people Yeah, I think that's probably true.
And you know, it's a great entryway to talk about foreign policy, too When I remember especially when you're running for president before they would ask you, you know Well, what departments would you abolish and you would surprise everybody by saying?
Well, how about we abolish the Department of Homeland Security?
But of course if if you know al-qaeda is going to attack us all day every day without the Department of Homeland Security Then we need that thing.
You're crazy.
But then you can make your point No, all we have to do is change our foreign policy.
We won't need a national police force at all Yeah, I mean that they were supposed to be protecting us We were spending 40 billion dollars before 9-11 for gathering intelligence And there was a lot of information there that could have helped, you know prevent 9-11, but now we're spending 80 billion And they think oh, we must be a lot safer well, of course, there's more that would like to kill us than ever before and We're bankrupt and we're undermining our liberties I would say we're you know to the famous question of all politics So if the country going in the right direction of the wrong direction, I would firmly answer so far We're going in the wrong direction.
I'd sure like to help turn the direction around and go a different direction Yeah Well, and you know the Department of Homeland Security just even the name of that thing But plus all the fusion centers and the operation of really kind of consolidating police power in this country it seems like if we can't get that thing repealed sometime soon and and homeland security is a permanent fixture of American society Then we're going to have a lot of lost liberty more and more even than we've been anticipating And that's not going to be beyond the agenda, you know I think the three of us have voted against it when they were establishing it But we might be able to get them to back off on a couple couple things But you know how bad the Patriot Act was and people started complaining and campaigning against and the Democrats didn't like it So the as soon as they had a chance Pelosi led the charge for renewing it and making it more permanent So it's hard to it's hard to cancel things out That's why it will not be easy to get rid of Obama's medical care system, too You know, although that was a big issue in the last campaign I just hope we can do some good on that But the idea of you know, six months from now, that's going to repeal It's just not going to happen because first off he'd veto it.
Anyway, well, dr.
Paul I have a dream not that it'll work out or anything, but here's what I'd like to see I'd like to see you run for president again but with Russ Feingold or Dennis Kucinich a good progressive who's good on peace and the Bill of Rights and the most important things who Who's for accountability for criminals in government and on Wall Street, etc And then we could redo the two-party system in America and we could have us versus them peace and freedom versus the war party and then you could just make your major talking point that Sarah Palin and Barack Obama ought to run together it's the Warren inflation party and then we can just get rid of all this silly old left right and have a real realignment and Keep our Bill of Rights Good point.
I think that people ought to contemplate what you've said I sure would like to see that and you know Your son has made such great inroads with as you say you call him the Tea Party, right?the new kind of populist Republicans out of power right wing and It just seems like you're the perfect one to finish that realignment with this upcoming campaign and get somebody like, you know Feingold or somebody who's who's really good and and see you know A lot of people on the left are really disappointed in Barack Obama for filling out George Bush's third term And it seems like you know If it really is the kind of crisis and emergency that you and I I think agree that it is You know, maybe now's the time for a real shake-up for a real realignment of American politics.
Well We certainly need it and there's more people talking about it But unfortunately, you know the base becomes pretty loyal, you know, but I think you're right I think there are a number of progressives that are breaking away, but in Washington I run into the people who are partisans before they believe even in their progressive ideas they are not basically principled, but the people outside of Washington can see that Obama has come up short even in those areas.
Yeah, well for it.
So well, thank you very much for your time on the show I know you have to go doc, but I really appreciate you staying on with us here.
Good contact.
Good talking to you.
Appreciate it That is the heroic.
Dr. Ron Paul Congressman representing district 14 on Texas Gulf Coast, please read a foreign policy of freedom.
It's 30 years worth of speeches Such wisdom in that book It's really great stuff and check out his archives original antiwar.com/Paul.
We'll be right back
