Ron Paul squares off with the Union Leader over foreign policy

October 8, 2007

By Mark Memmott & Jill Lawrence
USA Today

Having his views described as "unrealistic and dangerous" in an editorial by the New Hampshire Union Leader didn't sit well with Republican presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul.

So today, the Texas congressman who comes at things from a Libertarian point of view, responded with his own opinion piece in the newspaper.

"If I understand the editors' concerns," Paul writes, "I have not been accused of deviating from the Founders' logic; if anything I have been accused of adhering to it too strictly. The question, therefore, before readers -- and soon voters -- is the same question I have asked for almost 20 years in Congress: by what superior wisdom have we now declared Jefferson, Washington, and Madison to be 'unrealistic and dangerous'? Why do we insist on throwing away their most considered warnings?"

The crux of the Union Leader's argument was this:

Paul's repeated insistence that "There would be no risk of somebody invading us" is just what the isolationist Republicans of the 1930s believed -- right up until Pearl Harbor. Paul's idea that we can maintain peace by halting our projection of military strength has been proven wrong by history. But Rep. Paul is not about to let historical reality get in the way of his ideologically pure position.

To which the congressman replies:

It is not we non-interventionists who are isolationists. The real isolationists are those who impose sanctions and embargoes on countries and peoples across the globe because they disagree with the internal and foreign policies of their leaders. The real isolationists are those who choose to use force overseas to promote democracy, rather than seek change through diplomacy, engagement, and by setting a positive example. ...

A Paul administration would see Americans engaged overseas like never before, in business and cultural activities. But a Paul administration would never attempt to export democracy or other values at the barrel of a gun, as we have seen over and over again that this is a counterproductive approach that actually leads the United States to be resented and more isolated in the world.