House Speeches against War

Everyone needs to get their hands on a copy of Ron Paul's "Foreign Policy of Freedom", which is a collection of his speeches while in office throughout his ten terms, all of which are on the subject of America's pro-war, anti-peace Imperialism against the original understanding of the Republic of the USA. They are both brilliant and passionate, and I have only read the first 100 pages!

There are a handful of things that Congressman Paul has illuminated my mind regarding the US imperialist position that I think important to bring up here.

First, it was through the Cold War proxy battles that the US finally ceased being a Republic (a decline, some argue, begun at the win by the North of the Civil War) and was officially an Empire. Once the power to go to war is vested in the authority of one man (president, prime minister, etc.), then you no longer have a Republic by definition.

Such a switch occurred through Truman's war in Korea, "The Forgotten War", in which 53, 000 American boys died for American presidential adventurism in the East. Following this we have the illegal (read: unconstitutional) wars of Vietnam, Panama, Lebanon, Grenada, Persian Gulf, Iraq, Afghanistan, and all the rest of those proxy wars fought by CIA trained and owned operatives in the Central and South America and in Asia.

Second, the introduction of Congressional "non-binding resolutions" is often the first step into unnecessary and illegal wars. Congress, while condemning some horrible tragedy, throws in a line or paragraph stating that the president should do "everything he can" to stem the tragedy from increasing, or some such thing. Remarkable, when you see Ron Paul speaking out against the non-binding resolution to condemn the Palestinian masacre by the Israelis, tossing in some comments about the president's roll to do anything he deems necessary till the conflict between Lebanon and Israel is over. This led to scores of Marines dying as the president committed our troops in irresponsible ways and got them killed. Placing our boys and girls in harms way between two warring factions is not a way to keep peace, but it is a sure-fire way to get a lot of good people killed.

What worries me most about this is that we just past such a non-binding resolution expressing our sorrow for the earthquake in Haiti, while throwing in the part at the end about committing US troops to the area indefinitely. Oh, and they found a lot of oil in Haiti recently...

Finally, and probably most misunderstood about Ron Paul's domestic and economic policies (fiscal and monetary) is just how much our spending at home and abroad leads to militarism and adventurism all over the world. You cannot talk about foreign policy without bringing up economic policy, even domestic spending, because of how much they are linked. This is the old "Welfare-warfare" problem.

This recently came up while I was listening to an episode on Anti-War Radio with Scott Horton. He was interviewing Robert Dreyfuss, of the Dreyfuss report, especially regarding his article entitled "Petraeus Gets It Wrong", when Robert called Ron Paul a "nut", doing so in regards to his desire "abolish the tax system". (Horton loves Ron Paul)

Consistently, Ron Paul brings up the fact that there is really only one thing that can sustain, at least for a while, warfare statism is an inflationary monetary policy fostered by the Federal Reserve. You cannot have the warfare state without subordinating the economy to serve federal interests, which involves socialist-style central planning and heavy taxation.

Do you really want to end the imperialism of the US, then you need precisely to attack the War Party's manipulation of the monetary policy of the country. You need to end the Fed. It is not an option. Jefferson did it. Jackson did it. Obama would never do it. He has demonstrated that he is not strong enough or cares enough to, because social welfare programs are just as dependent on the same tax structure and Fed irresponsibility and monetary manipulation as the warfare state.

The sad thing is Robert Dreyfuss continues in the interview as a borderline apologist for Obama, saying that he trying to turn our foreign policy around, but he is just doing it slower than he would want. He cannot or will not see that Obama is a part of the same Establishment Party that brought us all of the imperial wars of the past 60 years. Nothing changed. We still have the Patriot Act I & II under Obama. We still have a total lack of transparency. We still have Iraq going strong and now Afghanistan going stronger.

Ron Paul, sorry we did not vote for you.

gomer

AMDG

free to breathe? or bomb?

How could I, as a Christian, have so unhesitatingly supported the warfare State that we have created here in the American Empire?

We are gearing up for another war, deemed over and over again by the powers that be as "unavoidable." As our warhawks begin squawking for blood in Tehran, I guess it never mattered that they currently do not have nuclear weapons and were not working on nuclear grade Uranium. It doesn't matter, because there is no one really arguing for peace in the corridors of power. Well, besides Ron Paul (R-Tx), there is no one. There are only the Republocrats, the Establishment, the War Party. They pull the strings, and it is always in their favor.

In looking at our economic crisis, which we are still in and which will only proceed to get worse, we cannot afford another war on yet another front. There is no money. There is only a rapidly increasing national debt and deficit spending that would make Keynes roll over in his grave. It was through all of these economic issues that my political aspirations began to turn. And once I had granted access to the idea of free markets into my political reasoning, soon I was running as far and as fast as I could from the neoconservative doors of the G.O.P.

Morally, Christians are saying next to nothing about neocon warmongering. Recently, I joked with my conservative Republican dad that the RNC was spending millions to get "Blessed are the peacemakers" removed from the Bible, or at least replaced with "warmakers". A year ago I never would have said that. Heck, 9 months ago I was vigorously defending the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, thanking Christ for the Surge, and gearing up for an Iran smack-down.

Now, the political upheaval that has happened to me in the past year is incredible, for my political outlook has swung to a whole new vista that I never thought possible. Like my dad, I used to be a very vocal conservative Republican; "used to be" being the operative phrase. But that all changed with the McCain-Obama election.

This past election has driven me from the conservative movement. And yet, the more I learn about politics, economics and history, the more I realize that my turning from contemporary conservativism is really a return to old school conservativism, the Old Right of men like Taft, Hayek and Kirk. It was a flight from the neocons. This past election I discovered a candidate that I was before only marginally aware, Ron Paul, who declared that his policies are the "real conservativism" and the "real Republicanism." It intrigued me, to say the least. I had never really heard of him, except during a primary debate here and there. I had no idea that he was the singly most principled congressman in U.S. history. A man of principle you would think would be lauded in a democracy. Instead, his voting record is mocked as others dismiss him with the label, "Dr. No." If it violates the Constitution, reason, or morality, Dr. Ron Paul always votes "Nay", even if he is the only one doing so.

As I was becoming more of Libertarian, I was finally feeling like I didn't have to check my Christianity at the poll booth door. I could finally be pro-life because I saw clearly how insane and horrendously counter-productive were our country's interventionist military engagements that the GOP championed (unless Clinton led them, then the GOP hated them). I had found a political theory that justified and demanded non-aggression, peace and free trade. Imagine politicians fostering peace and not war! The Jesus inside was getting happier.

And that's what I'm doing. I'm imaging a world of libertarian policies of non-aggression, of voluntary association and of a radically free market. I'm imaging such a world that coexists with my Catholic Christian moral understanding and my desire to see the Kingdom of Heaven lived out radically in every nook and cranny of this world.

These previous elections in November and the subsequent presidency of Barack Obama, has shown me the deepest reality of politics in America: it's all theatre. Before the election (Oh dear, remember how long those Democrat primaries were?), Obama's and Hilary's anti-Bush rhetoric was fierce. They decried his wars, his CIA prisons, his use of torture, and his destruction of civil liberties through Patriot Act I & II. And yet, these two clowns, these two actors, demagogues, puppets- whatever your chosen descriptive label- they have yet to reverse a single policy of Bush's.

Bush was to the liberal Democrats what Obama is to the conservative Republicans: proof that this just is not working, that what we are letting the government get away with is destroying the better part of our country. It is my sincere hope that you learn to turn away from both of them, from the pro-war, military-industrial, interventionist, regulating, super-nanny state federal theatre called the Two Party System.

It is my hope that you turn from this mess and chose your family, your community and your future. Peace and prosperity are not found in central planning. They are found in the inherent dignity of the human person.

So now, I leave behind the neocon whirlwind for scarier waters. I'm an anarchist. I'm a capitalist. I'm a personalist who is also a Catholic. I chose life, peace and freedom every day over murder, war and tyranny. And it is my hope that I'll see you striving for the Second Revolution in America.

Peace be upon you all. Peace especially be upon the Middle East.

God love you,

Michael.