Libertarians for Ron Paul

The national Libertarian Party (LP) organization has taken their strongest position in favor of withdrawal from Iraq. At their national committee meeting yesterday in Las Vegas, the following resolution passed overwhelmingly.

WHEREAS the government of the United States should return to its historical libertarian tradition of avoiding entangling alliances, foreign quarrels, and military adventures and;
WHEREAS the armed forces of the United States have invaded Iraq, a foreign nation that neither directly attacked nor imminently threatened to attack the United States and;
WHEREAS the injustice and imprudence of this invasion cannot be undone by the continued presence of the armed forces of the United States in Iraq and;
WHEREAS the stability and security of Iraq lie outside the jurisdiction of the government of the United States;
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Libertarian Party National Committee calls on the government of the United States to withdraw the armed forces of the United States without undue delay.

“The heck with Congress’ big stimulus bill. The way to get the country out of recession — and most people think we’re in one — is to get the country out of Iraq, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll.”

“Pulling out of the war ranked first among proposed remedies in the survey, followed by spending more on domestic programs, cutting taxes and, at the bottom end, giving rebates to poor people in hopes they’ll spend the economy into recovery.”

“Forty-eight percent said a pullout would help fix the country’s economic problems “a great deal,” and an additional 20 percent said it would help at least somewhat.”

Full report http://tinyurl.com/2wk8zr

After Monday’s State of the Union address delivered by President George W. Bush, the Libertarian Party is renewing its call for a safe and timely troop withdrawal from Iraq.  “President Bush’s State of the Union address once again emphasized his desire to remain in Iraq without any finite objective or operational goal,” says William Redpath, chairman of the Libertarian Party.

“While we are pleased to see a decline in violence in Iraq, this should by no means become a mandate for sustaining our presence in the country,” says Redpath. “We were wrong for invading Iraq, and we as a country have paid for that mistake in dollars and blood.  Our obligation is not to Iraq, or any other nation in the world.  Our obligation is to our soldiers: to keep them as safe as possible and to use them only in the direct defense of our nation.  Each day we remain in Iraq is a rebuke of the promise we have made to the members of our Armed Forces.”

Full release: http://www.lp.org/media/article_563.shtml 

Today, January 15, is the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. Dr King was born on January 15, 1929 and was assassinated on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee.

During his life he championed human rights for all Americans, and campaigned to get rights for those whose rights were abridged. And he was an early opponent of the Vietnam War, speaking out against Lyndon Johnson’s war in 1965 and periodically for the rest of his life.

Today’s campaigners for human rights owe a debt to Martin Luther King, for his courage  his leadership, and his eloquence. His speech in Washington DC showed the power of his eloquence, and the strength of his dream - see for yourself

On January 16, 2007 Rep. Ron Paul joined with 417 other members of Congress to urge Americans to observe the Birthday of Dr. King and to celebrate his life and legacy
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=h2007-24

“Last night Rep. Ron Paul made a wistful kind of trip to the Clarendon neighborhood of Arlington, Virginia for a speech to the Robert Taft Club, a paleoconservative salon launched in 2006. Planning began long before news broke of Paul’s $5.1 million summer fundraising haul. That news turned a small event into a monster lecture, around 300 people lining up and around stairs to get into a small, oak-panelled room at a chop house. Journalists from ABC News and C-Span set up cameras as print journalists milled around.”

“Paul arrived a bit after 8 p.m., agog at the crowd. “I asked how many people belonged to this club,” he said, “and they said ‘oh, about 35 people.’ I’m used to speaking for… little groups of 35 people,” he said.”

“I saw Paul speak to a smaller, younger crowd of conservatives at CPAC six months back and his speaking style’s changed since then, if only slightly. He still wanted to barrel through a 30-minute address but was ready to pause and soak it in when people cheered at statements like “We need to go back to Revolutionary times and pick up the pieces!” Paul had a campaign to brag about, and re-enacted the moment from a Michigan rally (of 2000 people on the State campus) when he started talking abut fiat money and “some people started burning Federal Reserve notes!” He reared back his head and laughed. “Sometimes people will hand me a Fed note to sign and I ask them: ‘Is this going to increase the value or is it going to drive it down?’”

Dave Weigel’s full report @ http://www.reason.com/blog/show/122950.html

“Thursday, Huckabee called Texas Rep. Paul’s comments during the debate “ludicrous” and “unacceptable.” The former Arkansas governor conflated a previous debate comment with Wednesday’s debate to suggest that Paul blamed America for 9/11. ”

John Fout at TheStreet.com decided to fact-check Ron Paul’s statements and finds Paul’s arguments convincing here http://tinyurl.com/39cq6m

Several years ago I watched a Canadian PM debate on TV. It bore no resemblance to an American Presidential “debate.” Two guys, a few feet from each other, actually debating — no moderator, no buzzers, just two guys arguing, vigorously. I remember a movie featuring the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Although I don’t know if it was historically accurate, a similar sight, two guys arguing about real issues with no real rules. I have seen similar clips in other countries, but rarely in the US.

The American version of Presidential debates resembles a game show or beauty pageant, where each contestant is called on to answer for a set two-minute response. Rarely any follow-up, and rarely any effort to actually confront real issues.

But last night’s Republican debate was different. Following Ron Paul’s response calling for complete US withdrawal from the Middle East, moderator Chris Wallace took off his journalist mask and revealed himself in full Bill O’Reilly costume:

So, Congressman Paul, and I’d like you to take 30 seconds to answer this, you’re basically saying that we should take our marching orders from al Qaeda? If they want us off the Arabian Peninsula, we should leave?

Ron hit back:

I’m saying we should take our marching orders from our Constitution. We should not go to war — (cheers, applause) — we should not go to war without a declaration. We should not go to war when it’s an aggressive war. This is an aggressive invasion. We’ve committed the invasion of this war, and it’s illegal under international law. That’s where I take my marching orders, not from any enemy. (Cheers, boos.)

Huckabee explained that we couldn’t leave Iraq because “we broke it and now we own it,” and turned to Ron Paul:

And on this issue, when he [McCain] says we can’t leave until we’ve left with honor, I 100 percent agree with him because, Congressman, whether or not we should have gone to Iraq is a discussion that historians can have, but we’re there. We bought it because we broke it. We’ve got a responsibility to the honor of this country and to the honor of every man and woman who has served in Iraq and ever served in our military to not leave them with anything less than the honor that they deserve.

Wallace then offered Ron Paul (who was standing to Huckabee’s immediate right) a chance to respond. This began a brief but awesome exchange between Paul and Mike Huckabee.

REP. PAUL: The American people didn’t go in. A few people advising this administration, a small number of people called the neoconservative hijacked our foreign policy. They’re responsible, not the American people. They’re not responsible. We shouldn’t punish them. (Cheers, applause.)

MR. HUCKABEE: Congressman, we are one nation. We can’t be divided. We have to be one nation under God. That means if we make a mistake, we make it as a single country, the United States of America, not the divided states of America. (Cheers.)

REP. PAUL: No. When we make a mistake — (interrupted by applause) — when we make a mistake, it is the obligation of the people through their representatives to correct the mistake, not to continue the mistake! (Cheers, applause.)

MR. HUCKABEE: And that’s what we do on the floor of the –

REP. PAUL: No! We’ve dug a hole for ourselves and we dug a hole for our party! We’re losing elections and we’re going down next year if we don’t change it, and it has all to do with foreign policy, and we have to wake up to this fact.

MR. HUCKABEE: Even if we lose elections, we should not lose our honor, and that is more important to the Republican Party.

REP. PAUL: We’re losing — we’ve lost over — (cheers, applause) — we have lost — we have lost 5,000 Americans killed in — we’ve lost over 5,000 Americans over there in Afghanistan and Iraq and plus the civilians killed. How many more do you want to lose? How long are we going to be there? How long — what do we have to pay to save face? That’s all we’re doing is saving face. It’s time we came home!

The Baltimore Sun’s Frank James has a great write-up of the exchange. You can watch all the Ron Paul clips of the debate on YouTube.