I remember 9/11
I was watching clips of the latest republican debate on YouTube. They've begun to incorporate the modern age of internet video clips into debates, as the questions were being asked via videoclip by average joes. Question #1 was by a very young woman (more a girl, really) in unstylish casual attire. "How would you get us out of the war in Iraq?"
Unsurprisingly, Dr. Ron Paul had the best, easiest, simplest, and most logical solution which by the way got the biggest pop of the night by the live audience.
"We simply walk out." *CROWD GOES WILD*
During Congressman Paul's explanation of defective foreign policy, the mormon Willard "Mitt" Romney rudely interrupted him by making a highly comical gesture of incredulity and saying "Has he forgotten about 9/11?!" While his drama club body language made me laugh, I feel the need to answer him a lot more specifically than Dr. Paul did.
Since you brought up 9/11, Mr. Romney, let's go ahead and remember what happened. (For the sake of argument, I want you conspiracy theorists to just go along with the official story for me.) What happened was several people legally entered the United States through the proper, normal channels. They had passports and paperwork. They had apartments, they took flight lessons, they bought boxcutters at Wal-Mart and took over some planes, and then crashed them into buildings (which ironically were engineered to withstand a plane crash. So much for that.)
This was not a conventional military attack by an invasion force. It was not a military attack by a state.
The Saddam Hussein administration was not a sponsor of Al Qaeda. In fact, terrorism in general was perceived as a threat to the Ba'ath Party rule and treated accordingly. In essense, the Hussein administration fought terrorism. By the "enemy of my enemy is my friend" rationale recently spouted by the Bush Administration, that would actually have made the nation of Iraq a friend.
Therefore, Mr. Romney, your 9/11 related objection to Ron Paul's desire to withdraw from Iraq basically makes no sense.
In fact, most of the so-called War on Terror makes no sense. Regime change and nation-building will not prevent anybody from getting crazy with a plane ticket and boxcutter. John McCain's "The terrorists will follow us home." argument doesn't hold water. They can't follow you home if you have a razor-wire fence and a big fucking Rottweiler.
I will never take the Bush Administration's "war on terror" seriously as long as they continue to leave the Mexican border completely unguarded, do not reform and enforce security at ports, allow any Tom Dick or Abdul-Ackbar to just come into this country and work a convenience store. Our visa laws and policies and immigration policies and coastline security policies leave us wide open for any idiot to come in with God-knows-what.
Furthermore, this continued war (wherein Mitt Romney has expressed interest in deploying tactical nuclear weapons against Iran and Barack Obama has expressed interest in opening another front in Pakistan) does FAR FAR more harm than good.
Terrorism is basically not really much of a threat. Certainly not enough of one to warrant the kind of crusades the US has gone on.
I am far more likely to die from some hospital mixup, car accident, train derailment, or random ghetto trash with a gun than I ever will be at risk from foreign terrorists.
In my old neighborhood in Alabama, there were broad daylight home robbery raids done at gunpoint by illegal immigrant mexicans. But there has never been a foreign terrorist attack within 1000 miles of any place that I've lived.
Mitt Romney has served a single term as governor. He has never held a national-level political office. He knows shit-all about foreign policy.
Ron Paul has served in Congress for decades in numerous committees, served five years in the Air Force during Vietnam, is 71 years old, holds several university degrees, and basically knows and understands more about economic policy, foreign policy, and historical precedents than just about any other politician I've ever seen.
Has he forgotten about 9/11? No. But I think Mitt Romney has.
Unsurprisingly, Dr. Ron Paul had the best, easiest, simplest, and most logical solution which by the way got the biggest pop of the night by the live audience.
"We simply walk out." *CROWD GOES WILD*
During Congressman Paul's explanation of defective foreign policy, the mormon Willard "Mitt" Romney rudely interrupted him by making a highly comical gesture of incredulity and saying "Has he forgotten about 9/11?!" While his drama club body language made me laugh, I feel the need to answer him a lot more specifically than Dr. Paul did.
Since you brought up 9/11, Mr. Romney, let's go ahead and remember what happened. (For the sake of argument, I want you conspiracy theorists to just go along with the official story for me.) What happened was several people legally entered the United States through the proper, normal channels. They had passports and paperwork. They had apartments, they took flight lessons, they bought boxcutters at Wal-Mart and took over some planes, and then crashed them into buildings (which ironically were engineered to withstand a plane crash. So much for that.)
This was not a conventional military attack by an invasion force. It was not a military attack by a state.
The Saddam Hussein administration was not a sponsor of Al Qaeda. In fact, terrorism in general was perceived as a threat to the Ba'ath Party rule and treated accordingly. In essense, the Hussein administration fought terrorism. By the "enemy of my enemy is my friend" rationale recently spouted by the Bush Administration, that would actually have made the nation of Iraq a friend.
Therefore, Mr. Romney, your 9/11 related objection to Ron Paul's desire to withdraw from Iraq basically makes no sense.
In fact, most of the so-called War on Terror makes no sense. Regime change and nation-building will not prevent anybody from getting crazy with a plane ticket and boxcutter. John McCain's "The terrorists will follow us home." argument doesn't hold water. They can't follow you home if you have a razor-wire fence and a big fucking Rottweiler.
I will never take the Bush Administration's "war on terror" seriously as long as they continue to leave the Mexican border completely unguarded, do not reform and enforce security at ports, allow any Tom Dick or Abdul-Ackbar to just come into this country and work a convenience store. Our visa laws and policies and immigration policies and coastline security policies leave us wide open for any idiot to come in with God-knows-what.
Furthermore, this continued war (wherein Mitt Romney has expressed interest in deploying tactical nuclear weapons against Iran and Barack Obama has expressed interest in opening another front in Pakistan) does FAR FAR more harm than good.
Terrorism is basically not really much of a threat. Certainly not enough of one to warrant the kind of crusades the US has gone on.
I am far more likely to die from some hospital mixup, car accident, train derailment, or random ghetto trash with a gun than I ever will be at risk from foreign terrorists.
In my old neighborhood in Alabama, there were broad daylight home robbery raids done at gunpoint by illegal immigrant mexicans. But there has never been a foreign terrorist attack within 1000 miles of any place that I've lived.
Mitt Romney has served a single term as governor. He has never held a national-level political office. He knows shit-all about foreign policy.
Ron Paul has served in Congress for decades in numerous committees, served five years in the Air Force during Vietnam, is 71 years old, holds several university degrees, and basically knows and understands more about economic policy, foreign policy, and historical precedents than just about any other politician I've ever seen.
Has he forgotten about 9/11? No. But I think Mitt Romney has.