Libertarians for Ron Paul

“Longtime lobbyist Charles Black Jr. is John McCain’s man in Washington, a political maestro who hopes to guide his friend, the senator from Arizona, to the presidency this November.”

“But for half a decade in the 1980s, Black was also Jonas Savimbi’s man in the capital city. His lobbying firm received millions from the brutal Angolan guerrilla leader and took advantage of Black’s contacts in Congress and the White House.” …

“In addition to Savimbi, Black and his partners were at times registered foreign agents for a remarkable collection of U.S.-backed foreign leaders whose human rights records were sometimes harshly criticized, even as their opposition to communism was embraced by U.S. conservatives. They included Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos and Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire.”

Full  story @ http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?=/c/a/2008/05/22/MNIT10QN20.DTL

“Today University of Chicago professor Robert Pape has joined the Ron Paul 2008 campaign as a foreign policy advisor.”

 ”Dr. Pape is the foremost expert on suicide terrorism and the founder of the Chicago Project on Suicide Terrorism. He is also the author of Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism and has published numerous articles on suicide terrorism and the use of air power in war.”

Regarding the campaign, Professor Pape said, “Ron Paul’s campaign is making a lasting contribution to the security of the United States and its allies.  Indeed, I often tell audiences ‘Ron Paul has the right foreign policy to safeguard America.’”

 ”Middle East expert Leon Hadar and national security analyst Ivan Eland have also joined the Ron Paul campaign as foreign policy advisors.”

Full release @ http://www.ronpaul2008.com/press-releases/239/suicide-terrorism-expert-professor-robert-pape-named-ron-paul-2008-foreign-policy-advisor

VoteVets.org is organized on behalf of US military veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. VoteVets.org has invited the candidates for President to submit statements to their blog on issues relevant to US military veterans. Five Democrats have posted statements; Ron Paul has also posted his commitments to veteran’s concerns http://www.vetvoice.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=78

The leading Republican candidates have declined to post comments on this blog, because VoteVets.org has worked bring the troops home.

“Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson may have set a modern record for the amount of sloppy thinking on defense policy in a single speech.  In remarks at the Citadel on Tuesday, Thompson proposed measures for a “revitalized” national defense.”

“The chief “pillar” of Thompson’s proposal is that the United States should not spend less than 4.5 percent of its gross domestic product on defense—not including the vast sums committed each year for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Another crucial pillar is that the U.S. should expand Army and Marine Corps to form a “million-member” force.”

“4.5 percent of GDP is an astonishingly large sum. The U.S. already spends as much on the military as the rest of the world combined, but even that vast outlay apparently does not satisfy Thompson and others who want to lavish more money on the Pentagon. Under his plan—and a similar scheme advanced by the Heritage Foundation earlier this year— the U.S. military budget would soar by nearly $100 billion. The total would approach $600 billion—plus at least another $150 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan. Worse, the 4.5 percent figure is a floor; the actual defense budget of a Thompson administration could be even more.”

Column by Ted Carpenter @ http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=8798

“In the name of clamping down on “terrorist uprisings” in Pakistan, General Musharraf has declared a state of emergency and imposed martial law. The true motivations behind this action however, are astonishingly transparent, as the reports come in that mainly lawyers and opposition party members are being arrested and harassed. Supreme Court justices are held in house arrest after indicating some reluctance to certify the legitimacy of Musharraf’s recent re-election.”

“Meanwhile, terrorist threats on US interests may be more likely to originate from Pakistan, a country to which we have sent $10 billion.”

Full column by Rep. Ron Paul http://www.freeliberal.com/archives/003061.html

The Libertarian Party has criticized the Bush administration’s new sanctions on Iran, saying the sanctions only worsen an already delicate situation.  Libertarian Party Executive Director Shane Cory says “the United States should pursue more dialogue and less saber-rattling when dealing with Iran.”

“The recent sanctions of the Bush administration on Iran indicate the United States is preparing for a war with a country it knows very little about,” Cory continues. “The talk of a potential ‘World War III’ and other harsh threats President Bush has used against Iran are extremely similar to the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq.  The last thing the United States needs is another war.  Nothing has been worse for the national security of America than Bush’s aggressive foreign policy in the Middle East.”
Full release from the Libertarian Party http://www.lp.org/media/article_530.shtml 

“More adults in the United States question their government’s rationale on foreign affairs, according to a poll by the New York Times and CBS News. 54 per cent of respondents think the U.S. will be safer from terrorism in the long run if it stays out of other countries’ affairs in the Middle East, up five points since October.”

It appears that a majority of Americans now agree with Ron Paul’s view that blowback from our foreign policy is a major cause of terrorist attacks on Americans. 

Angus-Reid polling has details http://tinyurl.com/2dlose
 

The “war on terror” has created a culture of fear in America. The Bush administration’s elevation of these three words into a national mantra since the horrific events of 9/11 has had a pernicious impact on American democracy, on America’s psyche and on U.S. standing in the world. Using this phrase has actually undermined our ability to effectively confront the real challenges we face from fanatics who may use terrorism against us.

Zbigniew Brzezinski writes on “How a Three-Word Mantra Has Undermined America” http://tinyurl.com/3ys5n8