Imagine (Ron Paul on Foreign Basing)

[Richard]

Here's an interestingly naive approach - based on some slickly skewed assumptions by the author - to a hot button issue that has strong appeal to the neo-isolationist kumbayah wings of all the current political parties.

Richard's $.02

Imagine

Imagine for a moment that somewhere in the middle of Texas there was a large foreign military base, say Chinese or Russian. Imagine that thousands of armed foreign troops were constantly patrolling American streets in military vehicles. Imagine they were here under the auspices of “keeping us safe” or “promoting democracy” or “protecting their strategic interests.”

Imagine that they operated outside of US law, and that the Constitution did not apply to them. Imagine that every now and then they made mistakes or acted on bad information and accidentally killed or terrorized innocent Americans, including women and children, most of the time with little to no repercussions or consequences. Imagine that they set up check points on our soil and routinely searched and ransacked entire neighborhoods of homes. Imagine if Americans were fearful of these foreign troops, and overwhelmingly thought America would be better off without their presence.

Imagine if some Americans were so angry about them being in Texas that they actually joined together to fight them off, in defense of our soil and sovereignty, because leadership in government refused or were unable to do so. Imagine that those Americans were labeled terrorists or insurgents for their defensive actions, and routinely killed, or captured and tortured by the foreign troops on our land. Imagine that the occupiers’ attitude was that if they just killed enough Americans, the resistance would stop, but instead, for every American killed, ten more would take up arms against them, resulting in perpetual bloodshed. Imagine if most of the citizens of the foreign land also wanted these troops to return home. Imagine if they elected a leader who promised to bring them home and put an end to this horror.

Imagine if that leader changed his mind once he took office.

The reality is that our military presence on foreign soil is as offensive to the people that live there as armed Chinese troops would be if they were stationed in Texas. We would not stand for it here, but we have had a globe straddling empire and a very intrusive foreign policy for decades that incites a lot of hatred and resentment towards us.

According to our own CIA, our meddling in the Middle East was the prime motivation for the horrific attacks on 9/11. But instead of re-evaluating our foreign policy, we have simply escalated it. We had a right to go after those responsible for 9/11, to be sure, but why do so many Americans feel as if we have a right to a military presence in some 160 countries when we wouldn’t stand for even one foreign base on our soil, for any reason? These are not embassies, mind you, these are military installations. The new administration is not materially changing anything about this. Shuffling troops around and playing with semantics does not accomplish the goals of the American people, who simply want our men and women to come home. 50,000 troops left behind in Iraq is not conducive to peace any more than 50,000 Russian soldiers would be in the United States.

Shutting down military bases and ceasing to deal with other nations with threats and violence is not isolationism. It is the opposite. Opening ourselves up to friendship, honest trade and diplomacy is the foreign policy of peace and prosperity. It is the only foreign policy that will not bankrupt us in short order, as our current actions most definitely will. I share the disappointment of the American people in the foreign policy rhetoric coming from the administration. The sad thing is, our foreign policy WILL change eventually, as Rome’s did, when all budgetary and monetary tricks to fund it are exhausted.

Posted by Ron Paul (03-09-2009)

http://www.house.gov/htbin/blog_inc?...ngdetail.shtml

[rubberneck]

I have always thought Ron Paul was a tool. It is nice to know my initial thoughts were right on target.

[Team Sergeant]

Imagine for a moment the United States ran out of tin-foil, imagine all the people that would be as affected as Ron Paul...

[Sigaba]

During the 2008 presidential campaign, a friend tried to bait me.

He started to ask what I'd think of the man "if [the Democratic candidate] were a Republican..."

"He'd be Ron Paul," I said.

[bluenote]

During the election I recieved a postcard in the mail from the Elect Ron Paul Campaign. It had a picture of a person in ACUs and combat boots from the knees down stepping on a copy of the Constitution. Ron Paul is a Toolset. BN

[Richard]

FWIW - here is a similar "Imagine" scenario (we could add scenarios for Germany, Japan, and Korea) which RP so blatantly ignored and for why we still think it reasonable and necessary to maintain overseas basing agreements for a portion of our forces.

Imagine for a moment that the USA had never known any government other than by a series of unelected rulers or self-appointed dictators; that it was a dysfunctional, feudalistic, and military dictatorship who–as the 7th largest army in the world-- had for decades assaulted and–literally–raped its neighboring countries; that indiscriminately tortured and killed its own citizens; that had used outlawed chemical weapons upon both its neighbors and its own citizens during an 8 year inconclusive war of over 1,000,000 casualties; that had denied basic services and support to entire regions of its country to enforce a policy of starvation or worse as punishment for those citizens who had displeased its governing body; that had continued to publicly put forth a policy of genocide and paid bounties to anyone who indiscriminately murdered any of a race of peoples it claimed had no right to exist; that fomented regional instability among the world by supporting active terrorist movements and harboring wanted terrorist leaders; that continued to openly adopt a policy of noncompliance with UNSC resolutions over a period of 12 years which led to a UN-sanctioned invasion and the ouster of the ruling regime; that incurred occupying forces who remained under a UNSC mandate for 5 years and then under a bilateral Security Agreement thereafter to help provide security and to support the freely elected government.

IMO - one has to wonder why someone as 'straight talking' as RP portrays himself to be would so blatantly ignore such relevant events in regards to his OpEd piece.

If anyone is really interested in 'learning' something of the issue(s) involved with this complex and on-going topic, the following gives a good and fairly current view of it all.

Commission on Review of Overseas Military Facility Structure
of the United States

http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/dod/obc.pdf

Richard's $.02

[Sigaba]

Originally Posted by Team Sergeant

Imagine for a moment the United States ran out of tin-foil, imagine all the people that would be as affected as Ron Paul...

At least one resident of NYC is safe. <<LINK>>