Thread: Ron Paul on the Issues

Bob Chapman - Kerry Lutz - Video:
http://hw.libsyn.com/p/2/c/3/2c3221960f35bffe/Bob_Chapman_12-28-2011.mp3?sid=9cb0c16284ebdd3dd518eb8eddcb21d7&l_si d=34778&l_eid=&l_mid=2850222&expiration=1325260026 &hwt=33f4b0e030f522e8735d17342b9fc174


Bob Chapman - Ron Paul Is Our Last Hope

U.S. Markets and Election 2012, Pull Out The Big Guns!

Stock-Markets / Financial Markets 2012 Dec 30, 2011 - 03:13 AM By: UnpuncturedCycle

You know it's only a question of time. Ron Paul is in the lead in Iowa and running a strong second in New Hampshire so the press is bringing out the big guns in an effort to knock him down. The top two articles on MSN.com are "Is Ron Paul A Homophobe?" and "Romney Surges in Iowa" with the latter implying that his move to overtake Paul is all but in the bag. I know a thing or two about the Midwest since I grew up in Illinois and I can tell you that the folks in Iowa won't lose a minute's sleep if Paul came out against homosexuals or not.¹ The problem is no one expected him to be "in the game" right now and folks on the Republican side of the isle are very nervous. That means things will get very dirty.
Don't kid yourself for a minute! This election is not about what's good for America or solving America's problems. This election is all about the preservation of power!

Ron Paul is a huge threat to the status quo and that means the Republicans will do anything to keep him from receiving the nomination, and I mean anything. They'll drag out crack addicts and prostitutes to say that he had sex with them in a bathroom right before he gave a big speech. They will stop at nothing! Paul has gone so far as to say that he will eliminate the Federal Reserve and do away with lobbyists, and that is akin to slaughtering sacred cows on a New Delhi main street at high noon. And if the Republicans can't get the job done, you can bet your derriere that the Democrats will burn the midnight oil trying to sink Paul.

The real problem is not that Ron Paul might actually challenge the "establishment" or not. The real problem is that the stench emanating from Washington is now permeating the nostrils of everyday decent Americans. They are saturated with bullshit from both sides of the isle and they are tired of holding their collective breath because of the smell. Obama ran on the promise of change and this time around the American people are going to give him change whether he likes it or not. He will of course try to spin his way out of trouble, but the sight of a President blaming someone else for his own glaring shortcomings will not play well with the electorate.

Obama allowed corporate fraud to move up in category from an art form to a profession, and he put the thieves in control of the justice system just to make sure everything goes according to plan. The Afro-American population that helped elect him got screwed and they are finally coming to that realization now. Skin color aside Obama is just another crooked Wall Street type in a smoke filled blue suit responsible for raping the country for whatever was left of its wealth.

Corruption is everywhere and that includes the market place, but what very few understand is that the markets are so big and powerful that they are capable of defending themselves. In short they'll bend but they won't break, and watch out for the day of reckoning because it's going to be a humdinger! Think of the market as a body filled with toxins and possessing an auto immune system second to none. Sooner or later it will expel those toxins (distortions forced upon the system by a corrupt Fed and Congress) in a very unpleasant manner. Smart people have been calling for that day for more than three decades and I believe we are very close to an economic cleansing right now. It just occurred to me that maybe the Mayans were really taking about Wall Street!!

In today's world nothing is as it seems. The dollar and the 30-Year treasury rise as supply increases almost exponentially. Obama came to power with a total debt of US $10 trillion and this is the outlook for 2011:

• We have a current U.S. Tax revenue of $2,170,000,000,000
• The Federal budget is $3,820,000,000,000
• New debt is $ 1,650,000,000,000
• The national debt is $14,271,000,000,000
• And finally recent budget cuts amount to a paltry $ 38,500,000,000.

and I haven't even touched the off the books debts that total US $110 trillion. Yet the dollar and bond continue to rally based on the time-honored concept known as the "lesser of all known evils". History is full of examples that show this is a flawed reasoning process.

Now we are told that gold is no longer a safe haven and the eleven-year old bull market whose very existence was denied until three short years ago, is now over. You can see clearly the bull market that began way back in 1999 with the US $252.00 low. If this were the NASDAQ they would be dancing in the streets proclaiming that 30,000 is just around the corner. It's not, it's gold, and it's the Ron Paul of the investment world. The average man on the street is unaware of the eleven-year old bull market, but he's becoming aware. It's a process and it requires time, but the wheels are in motion and he will eventual jump into the pool, cloths and all.



With respect to gold, every time we have a reaction, and that's what this is, we hear the sirens announcing the end of the bull market. I've lost count of the times Robert Prechter of Elliot Wave fame has called an end to the bull market over the last five years. Strangely enough he's been silent of late. Do you think he's finally learned his lesson? The Bloomberg crowd is another group that tries to talk gold lower every chance they get, and the only thing they hate more than the yellow metal is RIM.² What they all fail to realize is that gold experiences corrections every once in a while and that is precisely what we are experiencing now.
On the plus side of the balance sheet we have this perverse love affair with the stock market and cheerleaders with their constant lemma of "stocks are cheap". Of course they're cheap since they no longer have to follow generally accepted accounting principals and liabilities can magically become assets with the touch of a keypad. You have US $3.7 trillions in quantitative easing over the last two years and we still can't make a higher high! Here you can see the April 29th top of 12,876 is still well below the October 2008 high of 14,167:



Here I've drawn in the rallies that resulted from QE1 and QE2 and the latter was somewhat muted. Subsequent "minor QE's" due to extension of Fed policies, swaps with Europe, and the recent ECB quantitative easing all have failed to push stocks above the April lower high.

You can screw with the price/earnings ratio by doctoring balance sheets but it's a lot more difficult to screw with the average dividend yield because someone actually has to write a check. The average dividend yield for the S & P 500 is a miserable 2.35% and that is historically very low and an indication of bull market tops and not cheap bear market bottoms. In order for an intelligent man to even consider buying stocks, any stock for that matter, you need to see an average dividend yield close to 5% and I would prefer above 6%. We are a long, long way from that. When I see a company like Facebook with a market cap of US $60 billion no one has to tell me the market is overvalued. This is a company that creates nothing and adds little or no value to society as a whole. If you removed it from the face of the earth tomorrow, the world would not skip a beat. Sooner or later the US, Europe and China will have to get back to basics, eliminate debt, and everyone will have to live within their means. That would imply a Dow somewhere around 3,000. Until then either stay out of the market, or get short if you can stand the heat!

In conclusion we live in a society were greed has run amuck. I read recently that "greed is an excess of desire and lack of empathy and judgment outside of the virtues, and is therefore most decidedly not 'good.' A system built predominantly upon unrestrained greed, anger, envy, and pride will not, by definition, be virtuous but degenerative, unstable, and ultimately self-destructive if not put down by its victims first." If this is the case the US is definitely not "good". The "victims" in the US are the so-called 99% and they are about to have their say. The market is just beginning to discount that and it will be interesting to watch.

Giuseppe L. Borrelli
www.unpuncturedcycle.com
theunpuncturedcycle@gmail.com

http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article32367.html

THE PHONY RIGHTWING

By Kelleigh Nelson
December 30, 2011
NewsWithViews.com

Ron Paul

Yep we're slaves alright. Tax law being the most nefarious of the lot. Certainly, we are no longer living in a land of "justice". . We have lots and lots of laws of "Control and Obedience" to the American Royalty erroneously called The Federal Government. We have King and Queen Obama and a bunch of Czar's...Does anybody remember "America"? (the land of the free?) -J. Carlton, Calgary

This is for everyone who keeps writing me and asking, "When are you going to write about Ron Paul?" No matter what I write about Ron Paul, I will be loved by some and hated by others. Please remember I started with the worst of the lot and, IMHO all but Bachmann and Paul are globalists. Michele carries a lot of baggage, working for the IRS to me is as damaging as Herman Cain having worked for the Federal Reserve. With Ron Paul, you have a man who, among other things, wants to rid us of the Federal Reserve, (watch this important video) give power back to the states, is staunchly pro-life, doesn't believe in World Government, wants to stop the federal spending, wants to stop all foreign aid, wants to bring our soldiers home, has a way to cut spending and the deficit, wants to eliminate federal departments responsible for pushing the horrid UN Agenda 21 and Sustainable Development, would repeal Obamacare, Dodd-Frank, and Sarbanes-Oxley, would lower the corporate tax to 15%, and is a Christian who isn't pandering his faith like so many of the candidates. [Link] Here is Ron's statement of faith and I love it. [Link] Congressman Paul's detractors will list many points against him, but if one only searches the reasoning behind Paul's stances, you'll find that many of them are constitutional.

Ron Paul was born in August of 1935, and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Gettysburg College and the Duke University School of Medicine, before proudly serving as a flight surgeon in the U.S. Air Force during the 1960s. He and his wife Carol moved to Texas in 1968, where he began his medical practice in Brazoria County. As a specialist in obstetrics/gynecology, Dr. Paul has delivered more than 4,000 babies. He and Carol, who reside in Lake Jackson, Texas, are the proud parents of five children and have 18 grandchildren and five great grandchildren. Paul was raised Lutheran, but now attends a Baptist Church.

Paul is a libertarian and thus there will be many facets of his belief system that constitutional conservatives might disagree with albeit his reasoning in most instances is sound and constitutional. If the states were given back their original power under the Constitution to decide issues such as abortion, that action would deprive the Federal government from passing laws like Roe v. Wade which resulted in a national law that forces all States to uphold abortion.

Let's look at some of the issues conservatives may have problems with, as well as those areas where we'd agree Ron Paul is the only candidate for President who is truly a constitutional conservative and who could put this nation back on the right track. Please take special notice of the links as they're quite informative and important.

1. Ron Paul voted for the repeal of "Don't Ask. Don't Tell." [Link] Paul seems to waver on whether homosexuality is a sin. [Link] The Congressman also believes the government should not be in your bedroom and says, "Gay couples can do whatever they want and call it whatever they want as long as they don't impose it on someone else." [Link]

Ron Paul stated in an article in the Huffington Post, "Everybody is an individual person, and everybody has the same rights as anyone else. The government has no business in your private life, you know, so if one person is allowed to do something so should everyone else. The whole gay marriage issue is a private affair, and the federal government has no say." Get the government out of our bedrooms! It is very important to see that this is an issue of individual justice rather than social justice.

2. Many Libertarians like Ron Paul are closer to the leftists in their love affair with Islam which is one area that is extremely troubling inasmuch as the desire of Islam is to overtake America and make it a Muslim nation. Paul doesn't believe the religion of Islam is our enemy and I'd have to disagree with him on this issue. [Link]

3. Congressman Paul says U.S. intervention motivated 9/11 attacks. [Link] Two weeks prior to the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Ron Paul says that U.S. intervention in the Middle East is a main motivation behind terrorist hostilities toward America, and that Islam is not a threat to the nation. [Link] Ron Paul has spoken about ";," which is the unintended consequences of foreign operations that were deliberately kept secret from the American public. In Christopher Simpson's 1988 book, Blowback, he thoroughly explains America's recruitment of Nazis into the CIA and its disastrous effect on our domestic and foreign policy that has lasted for years. The same goes for the other CIA foreign operations the public has no knowledge of even today. Please see this important video on Blowback.

Continued Below

Paul also believes we should get out of the Muslim countries now. I too believe this, albeit I want all our soldiers brought home and put on our borders with 50 caliber machine guns to protect our nation from drug cartels and illegal aliens.

4. Ron Paul, the most visible libertarian in the US (under the Republican banner), has said he thinks that sending illegal aliens home where they came from is not "humanitarian." He also doesn't believe in building a 700 mile fence. Now it seems the Libertarian Party is following this same kind of reasoning. [Link]

But wait! Here's what Ron says about illegal aliens in an interview with John Stossel. He wants to get rid of the subsidies for illegals, as well as any mandates by the Federal Government. This would include food stamps, social security, medical care, automatic citizenship under the guise of amnesty, free education, etc. Stop the free rides and they'll stop rushing over our borders. I agree with his stance. If the bird feeder is empty, the birds won't come. With soldiers on the border, terrorists won't either. Paul is against amnesty. [Link]

5. Ron Paul's libertarian views would support legalization of pornography and prostitution. [Link] Again, Ron's view is the First Amendment protection and that parents can restrict and control their children and it is not the Federal government's responsibility to do same. [Link] Prostitution is still going on today whether it is legalized or not and this is a social issue like homosexuality and pornography. Congressman Paul doesn't believe the government should legislate virtue or morality. I wish he'd tell this to the leftist Fabian socialists and Marxists we have in government control. [Link]

One of the factors that has brought the decline of morality in America is the failure of today's churches in teaching sound biblical doctrines and exhorting the members to read and study God's Word and spread the Gospel and we need to understand this rather than laying the blame elsewhere.

6. Ron Paul is staunchly pro-life and would have laws protecting life decreed by the States rather than by federal law. As I explained above, Ron would like to see Roe v. Wade repealed and let the States decide rather than having the Federal Government making abortion a nationalized law. [Link]

7. Paul believes the government has no role or authority in regulating drugs, another Libertarian concept. However, his stance has a great deal of merit inasmuch as it actually does pull the rug out from under the drug cartels and their profits. Am I in agreement? Not necessarily, but here's the Congressman's take on this issue. [Link]

8. Ron says terrorists should be tried in American civil courts. The opposition says, "Foreign terrorists belong in a military court." As for American Citizen, Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed by a U.S. drone strike in Yemen, like Ron Paul I have to ask, "Are we setting a precedent that will be used against other US citizens in the future?" [Link] It is something we definitely need to consider. Remember, what our government will do to an undesirable citizen, they can also do to us. Note the bill that just passed and will be signed into law H.R.1540 NDAA

9. Florida Republican Congressman John Mica offered the following morally clear Amendment (5/25/2011-H.AMDT.318 (A01 Amends H.R.1540): Amendment requires that the rules of engagement [ROE] allow any military service personnel assigned to duty in a designated hostile fire area to have rules of engagement that fully protect their right to proactively defend themselves from hostile actions.

The results? (tallied here): 143 out of 185 Democrats present — 77% — voted against this amendment; 217 out of 235 Republicans present — 92% — voted for it. As for the two Republicans in Congress running who are Presidential candidates, Michele Bachmann voted for the amendment; Ron Paul against it.

AND here is the caveat, the law authorizes the United States to use military force anywhere it says there are terrorists, including within the borders of our own country and including against American citizens. This bill eliminates habeas corpus making detention indefinite. It represents the largest hand-over of unchecked war authority from Congress to the executive branch in modern American history. The founders were seriously opposed to handing this much power over to executive, fearing tyranny, which is what we have today. If enacted into law, this provision would make Obama a total dictator who can wage war without the consent of the American people, which he has already done with Libya, but would legitimize it. This bill will legalize an unconstitutional act. [Link] Ron Paul has clearly sounded the alarm regarding the imminent destruction of the Republic. [Link]

10. The bogus claim of anti-Semitism arises with Ron Paul for several reasons. Basically his stance on our intervention in the Middle East which he feels resulted in terrorist attacks against us, and his pro-Islamic Mosque stance in New York have fueled this belief. Unfortunately Congressman Paul sponsored a bill that would have eliminated all aid to Israel alone rather than all foreign aid to any country. I do believe Paul wishes to eliminate all foreign aid and I'm in agreement with this stance. As well, I have Jewish friends in Israel who wish Israel would decline any monies from America so Israel could act as Israel sees fit and would not have to bow to American interests.

Here is what my one Israeli friend said, "US aid to Israel has made us (Israel) a puppet under the power of a terrible prez we didn't elect. US money enslaves us. If no one has the guts to speak truth, they don't merit to lead a nation. We in Israel live with empty words of blowhard politicians who're afraid of making the Arabs mad. If you don't tell the truth, they'll kill more of us. IF you tell the truth, they'll kill more of us. I'd rather die for the truth than a lie. The fact is, archeology- facts on the ground- and the history of the region attest to Jews not Palestinians being here from the beginning of time. Go study."

I have to agree with my Israeli friends and with Paul inasmuch as the strings attached to accepting US dollars inhibits Israel from proper defense of their country.

In Paul's book The Revolution: A Manifesto, at the end the Congressman includes a section called "A Reading List for a Free and Prosperous America." And on that recommended reading list is John T. Flynn's book, As We Go Marching. Congressman Paul is recommending the writings of a man who, in his day, was seen as a driving force behind the anti-Semitic liberal Republican Senator Nye and the Senate investigation into Jewish influence in Hollywood. [Link] [Link]


Continued Below

More troubling is the fact that Ron Paul's website mourned the passing of virulent anti-Semite, Eustace Mullins. [Link] In my files I have a copy of Mullins' booklet, "My Life In Christ," which was printed for him by Aryan Nations. Any investigation of Mullins reveals strong anti-Semitism. The question is who controls Ron's website? I am sure Paul does not.
Ron's real stance on Israel is clear and the rumors of anti-Semitism are false. Here is Ron's stance on Israel in this interview. Here is Ron's interview with Newsmax on his support of Israel and from The Atlantic, "Ron Paul is More Mainstream than His Opponents on Foreign Policy."

11. Ron Paul's new Plan to Restore America basically abolishes all the cabinet level departments tasked with implementation and dissemination of Agenda 21. His supporters have been hot on all the Agenda 21 issues for a long time. They're probably the ones who got Rand Paul up to speed on the issues, since he didn't have a clue when one of our researchers wrote to him. Ron is proposing One Trillion dollars in budget cuts! [Link] Here are the key components of Paul's economic plan, "Restore America," released in October.

It’s not mentioned by name anywhere in Ron Paul's 11 page Plan to Restore America; but, the cabinet-level departments he’s abolishing (page 2 on his plan) are the same departments (Energy, HUD, Commerce, Interior & Education) that Bill Clinton appointed to his President’s Council on Sustainable Development in 1993 to co-ordinate with the UN’s Agenda 21. [Link]

For this reason alone I'd cast my vote for Ron Paul. If you are unaware of what UN Agenda 21/Sustainable Development/Smart Growth/Smart Meters/Wildlands Project is all about, then visit Tom DeWeese's site on Agenda 21.

Conclusions

No one has ever accused Ron Paul of being a flip-flopper. He has been saying the same things for 35 years. Now the latest events in America and the world have conspired to make him look increasingly on target.

Congressman Paul is by far the most radically anti-big government candidate in the running. He'd boil the Federal government back down to a few skeletal constitutional functions. He'd cut all foreign aid, abolish the Patriot Act, get rid of Obamacare, return us to a gold standard, as well as eliminating the welfare state, and federal income taxes. He hates bipartisan compromise and loves gridlock!

Are there things on which I'd disagree with Dr. Paul? You bet there are! But there are far more things I agree with him on, especially his love of liberty and the Constitution. I have spent the better part of six months researching Dr. Paul and have collected hundreds of documents and articles on the man. The elite establishment politicos and media will do anything to destroy the reputation of this man, yet he gains more followers as the days go by.

Recently he was on the Jay Leno Show. Leno asked him how he liked the debates so far and Ron answered that standing there for two hours to speak for three minutes wasn't very enjoyable. Jay also made the statement that the bottom 15% of Americans pay no taxes. Ron quipped back, "That's a good start!"

If you wish to know more about Ron Paul, go to his website, Ron Paul on the Issues. Another site that contains valid information is Wikipedia's Political Positions of Ron Paul.

Paul isn't a 6'2" square jawed hunk of male flesh with a pompous arrogant, know-it-all attitude. He's a little Banty rooster who's smaller and faster than the globalists he's running against and who loves freedom.

If there's any chance in saving our country, I believe it's with Congressman Ron Paul.P.S. Here is a recent article written by his first and only speech writer in 1976. I think you'll enjoy it!

P.P.S. As the MSM falsely attacks Ron Paul for racist remarks, see the truth here and here. Make sure you watch the video.

© 2010 Kelleigh Nelson - All Rights Reserved

Kelleigh Nelson has been researching the Christian right and their connections to the left, the new age, and cults since 1975. Formerly an executive producer for three different national radio talk show hosts, she was adept at finding and scheduling a variety of wonderful guests for her radio hosts. She and her husband live in Knoxville, TN, and she has owned her own wholesale commercial bakery since 1990. Prior to moving to Tennessee, Kelleigh was marketing communications and advertising manager for a fortune 100 company in Ohio. Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, she was a Goldwater girl with high school classmate, Hillary Rodham, in Park Ridge, Illinois. Kelleigh is well acquainted with Chicago politics and was working in downtown Chicago during the 1968 Democratic convention riots. Kelleigh is presently the secretary for Rocky Top Freedom Campaign, a strong freedom advocate group.

Website: www.rockytopfreedom.com

E-Mail: proverbs133@bellsouth.net

http://www.newswithviews.com/Nelson/kelleigh143.htm

The Real Ron Paul Stands Up


Katie Kieffer
Jan 02, 2012

May I have your attention please? Will the real Ron Paul please stand up? I repeat, will the real Ron Paul please stand up?

I keep hearing the same three rumors about Paul: He blames America for 9/11, he’s anti-Israel and he’s pro-Iran. So, who is the real Ron Paul?

Does he blame America for 9/11?

No, he’s very patriotic. Bob Schieffer recently interviewed Paul on CBS Face the Nation: “I wanna ask you some questions ... and I wanna start with foreign policy because your statements over the years … suggest that you believe that 9/11 happened because of actions that the United States took. Is that correct?”

Paul answered: “Well, I think there is an influence. And that’s exactly what, you know, the 9/11 Commission said, that’s what the DOD has said and that’s also what the CIA has said and that’s what a lot of researchers have said. … America is you and I and we didn’t cause it, the average American didn’t cause it. … I’m saying [American foreign] policies have an affect but that’s a far cry from blaming America."

Chalmers Johnson, CIA consultant from 1967–1973, concurs with Paul: ‘The suicidal assassins of September 11, 2001, did not “attack America,” as our political leaders and the news media like to maintain; they attacked American foreign policy.’

Johnson says the CIA coined the term “blowback” as “a metaphor for the unintended consequences of the US government’s international activities that have been kept secret from the American people.”

You might ask: Blowback? For what? Isn’t America “a beacon for freedom” as President George W. Bush said immediately after the 9/11 attacks? Certainly our Constitution is a beacon for freedom. Paul simply maintains that the unintended consequences of our current foreign policy are that we provoke violent retaliation while we accrue substantial debt and lose precious American lives.

The final 9/11 Commission Report validates Paul’s concern about blowback: ‘Defense Secretary William Cohen told us Bin Ladin’s training camps were primitive, built with “rope ladders”; General Shelton called them “jungle gym” camps. Neither thought them worthwhile targets for very expensive missiles. President Clinton and Berger also worried about the Economist’s point—that attacks that missed Bin Ladin could enhance his stature and win him new recruits. After the United States launched air attacks against Iraq at the end of 1998 and against Serbia in 1999, in each case provoking worldwide criticism, Deputy National Security Advisor James Steinberg added the argument that attacks in Afghanistan offered “little benefit, lots of blowback against [a] bomb-happy U.S.”’
Moreover, if Paul’s foreign policy is anti-America, why has he outpaced McCain, Romney and Gingrich in individual active military contributions? Timothy Egan writes in The New York Times: “Not even a full 1 percent of Americans are active-duty military. … Yet, these soldiers, sailors, air men and women, and assorted boots on the ground know the cost … of going to war far more than the 99 percent not currently serving. Where they put their money in a campaign … says a great deal.”

Is he anti-Israel?

Hardly. Paul wants to improve America’s foreign policy to suit Israel’s best interest.

Cato Institute research fellow Leon Hadar advised Paul on foreign policy during his 2008 campaign. He recently wrote in Israel’s news source Haaretz that Paul: “has a profound knowledge of Jewish history, admires Israel and follows its political and economic developments with great interest.”

Paul told NewsMax: ‘Stop and consider America’s policy: We give $3 billion a year to Israel in loans; and we give $12 billion or more in assistance to Israel’s self-declared enemies. Some of these are countries that say they will drive Israel into the sea. … Foreign aid does not help Israel. It is a net disadvantage. I say to them that “the borrower is servant to the lender” and America should never be the master of Israel and its fate. We should be her friend.’

He added: “In October, 1981, most of the world and most of the Congress voiced outrage over Israel’s attack on Iraq and their nuclear development. I was one of the few who defended her right to make her own decisions on foreign policy and to act in her own self-interest.”

Says Michael Scheuer, the former CIA chief who led the unit tracking Osama bin Laden: “until we accept that our support of the Saudi police state, our military presence in Afghanistan and Iraq and Yemen, our support for the Israelis – until we understand that those policies are the main recruitment tools for the enemy, we will never get a grip on the size, the durability and the potential of that enemy.”

Paul’s foreign policy positions and his call for neutrality toward Israel stem from his awareness of analyses from America’s most experienced terrorism-fighters like Scheuer. Ultimately, I believe Paul sees neutrality as the best route to prioritize America’s economic and security interests, prevent global “blowback” and respect Israel’s sovereignty.

Is he pro-Iran?
No. He is concerned that current U.S. foreign policies may aggravate Iran toward asymmetric vengeance, yielding blowback rather than security for America.

Paul’s preference for leveraging amicable neutrality and aggressive diplomacy tactics toward Iran is often construed as supporting Iran. He simply questions how realistic a nuclear bomb threat is from Iran. He told CBS, “Iran doesn’t have a bomb; there’s no proof, there’s no new information regardless of this recent [U.N.] report.”

Indeed, the U.N.’s report only relayed vague suspicions regarding Iran’s nuclear projects and an unclassified “Report on Military Power of Iran” from our own Department of Defense dated April 2010 conveys that Iran’s nuclear goals are defensive rather than aggressive in nature: “Iran’s principles of military strategy include deterrence, asymmetrical retaliation and attrition warfare. Iran’s nuclear program and its willingness to keep open the possibility of developing nuclear weapons is a central part of its deterrent strategy.”

Paul also believes that “sanctions are the initial step to war” and we risk blowback by levying heavy sanctions on Iran based on our fear of their nuclear projects. Indeed, no sooner had the Obama administration prepared harsh economic sanctions than Iran retaliated by vowing to close the gateway for nearly one fifth of the world’s oil supply—the Strait of Hormuz.

Misconstruing Paul’s foreign policy views and leveling him with ad-hominem attacks is intellectually intolerant and nonstrategic if we want to defeat Obama's socialist policies in 2012. For, the GOP nominee (whoever they are) will need the support of the independent voters who embrace Paul’s philosophy. Let’s follow Reagan’s example by setting rumors aside, focusing on our goal, and ceasing groundless attacks on one of our own. Now, will the real Ron Paul please stand up?

http://townhall.com/columnists/katie..._up/page/full/