Ron Paul: Defender of the United States Constitution

Ron Paul is under attack, and I'm inclined to throw him a life preserver. During the most recent presidential "debate" for the Republican candidates, Rep. Paul indicated that our interventionist foreign policy over the past 50+ years might've led to the horrific events of September 11, 2001. It's a theory the CIA refers to as "blowback", that what we do might blow back into our faces. Predictably, Rudy Giuliani seized on the moment to lecture Paul and label him as "absurd". Paul's comments deserve greater scrutiny than such an ad-hominem attack.

I'm not going so far as to say we caused 9/11. There are plenty of left-wing loonies that spew that filth, and I'm not jumping on that bandwagon. I don't believe we caused 9/11 anymore than I believe that C02 causes global warming. It's all nonsense to me. But Ron Paul is intellectually honest to the core, and he's as pure a defender of our Constitution as there is in the halls of our government today, and if he believes that there might be some blowback, than I'm going to listen and study it for myself.

Paul ticked off a laundry list of reasons why our foreign policy might've helped lead to the events of 9/11. The overthrow of the legitimate, and increasingly democratic, government of Iran, setting up military bases on what Muslims believe is their holy ground, sticking our noses into everything whether or not we have legitimate reason to or not. Now, I believe very strongly in the need for transnational relations. It is to our benefit to have a strong, global economy. However, I believe that protecting our Constitution and American citizens comes first and foremost. As such, I believe Washington's watchword of strong partnerships with everyone, but permanent alliances with none. Ron Paul cautioned us to listen to the Islamofascists and the reasons they have given for attacking American interests around the world, including our homeland. I personally believe it's to facile to say that the deranged have legitimate reasons for doing what they do. It's like saying a pedophile has a legitimate reason for doing what he or she does. Liberals excuse and condone this behavior as the product of illness, and illness it might be, but nonetheless, personal accountability is the bedrock of a self-governing society that we purport to be. As such, the Islamofascists who attacked us on 9/11 are being served a healthy dose of personal accountability around the world by the greatest fighting force ever known to mankind: the US military.

I digress, and back to Ron Paul. We overthrew Iran's government, and look at what we've brought upon ourselves today: a fanatical, homicidal regime hellbent on getting their hands on a nuke to destroy Israel, and the United States. Can we not expect that something that egregious would come back to bite us? We meddle in foreign affairs around the world that have nothing or next-to-nothing to do with us, and we don't expect that the people we piss off might come back to bite us? Are we that arrogant?

Ron Paul consistently votes in favor of the Constitution. He voted against the Iraq war at the beginning as being an unconstitutional exercise of military power. I disagree, but he has stuck by his constitutional convictions from the beginning. Can the 19 other presidential candidates from both parties say the same? Ron Paul believes in the oath he took to uphold, protect and defend the Constitution against all enemies, both foreign and domestic, the same oath that I encouraged everyone to take for themselves in my previous position paper. Would that the other 534 members of Congress did the same thing.