donnay
09-20-2011, 11:34 PM
Paul: Santorum wants to start another war
Texas Congressman Ron Paul today accused fellow GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum of wanting to carelessly start a war against Iran.
Paul made his comments in an interview on WHO radio. Host Jan Mickelson noted that Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator, had accused Paul in debates of having “an insufficient fear of radical Islam.”
Paul responded: “Yeah, that’s what he says, but I think he maybe has an irrational fear where he’s willing to go to war carelessly. … My interpretation, he’s wanting to go to war against Iran.”
Paul said the United States is basically in six wars already, and we can’t afford it. “And he wants to start a seventh one.”
Paul’s foreign policy stance, which generally opposes military intervention abroad and calls for withdrawing troops stationed around the globe, has been a favorite target for Santorum in the debates.
Here’s a partial transcript from the CNN/Tea Party debate in Florida:
PAUL: First thing I would like to do is make sure that you understand there’s a difference between military spending and defense spending. I’m tired of all the militarism that we are involved in. And we’re wasting this money in getting us involved. And I agree, we are still in danger, but most of the danger comes by our lack of wisdom on how we run our foreign policy.
So I would say there’s a lot of room to cut on the military, but not on the defense. You can slash the military spending. We don’t need to be building airplanes that were used in World War II — we’re always fighting the last war.
But we’re under great threat, because we occupy so many countries.
We’re in 130 countries. We have 900 bases around the world. We’re going broke.
The purpose of al Qaeda was to attack us, invite us over there, where they can target us. And they have been doing it. They have more attacks against us and the American interests per month than occurred in all the years before 9/11, but we’re there occupying their land. And if we think that we can do that and not have retaliation, we’re kidding ourselves. We have to be honest with ourselves. What would we do if another country, say, China, did to us what we do to all those countries over there?
(APPLAUSE)
PAUL: So I would say a policy — a foreign policy that takes care of our national defense, that we’re willing to get along with people and trade with people, as the founders advised, there’s no authority in the Constitution to be the policeman of the world, and no nation-building. Just remember, George Bush won the presidency on that platform in the year 2000. And I still think it’s a good platform.
BLITZER: All right.
(APPLAUSE) BLITZER: Let me let Senator Santorum respond, because I know you strongly disagree.
SANTORUM: On your Web site on 9/11, you had a blog post that basically blamed the United States for 9/11. On your Web site, yesterday, you said that it was our actions that brought about the actions of 9/11.
Now, Congressman Paul, that is irresponsible. The president of the United States — someone who is running for the president of the United States in the Republican Party should not be parroting what Osama bin Laden said on 9/11.
(APPLAUSE)
SANTORUM: We should have — we are not being attacked and we were not attacked because of our actions. We were attacked, as Newt talked about, because we have a civilization that is antithetical to the civilization of the jihadists. And they want to kill us because of who we are and what we stand for. And we stand for American exceptionalism, we stand for freedom and opportunity for everybody around the world, and I am not ashamed to do that.
(APPLAUSE)
BLITZER: Thirty second, Mr. Paul.
PAUL: As long as this country follows that idea, we’re going to be under a lot of danger. This whole idea that the whole Muslim world is responsible for this, and they’re attacking us because we’re free and prosperous, that is just not true.
Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda have been explicit — they have been explicit, and they wrote and said that we attacked America because you had bases on our holy land in Saudi Arabia, you do not give Palestinians fair treatment, and you have been bombing —
(BOOING)
PAUL: I didn’t say that. I’m trying to get you to understand what the motive was behind the bombing, at the same time we had been bombing and killing hundreds of thousands of Iraqis for 10 years.
Would you be annoyed? If you’re not annoyed, then there’s some problem.
http://caucuses.desmoinesregister.com/2011/09/20/paul-will-miss-his-council-bluffs-stop/
Texas Congressman Ron Paul today accused fellow GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum of wanting to carelessly start a war against Iran.
Paul made his comments in an interview on WHO radio. Host Jan Mickelson noted that Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator, had accused Paul in debates of having “an insufficient fear of radical Islam.”
Paul responded: “Yeah, that’s what he says, but I think he maybe has an irrational fear where he’s willing to go to war carelessly. … My interpretation, he’s wanting to go to war against Iran.”
Paul said the United States is basically in six wars already, and we can’t afford it. “And he wants to start a seventh one.”
Paul’s foreign policy stance, which generally opposes military intervention abroad and calls for withdrawing troops stationed around the globe, has been a favorite target for Santorum in the debates.
Here’s a partial transcript from the CNN/Tea Party debate in Florida:
PAUL: First thing I would like to do is make sure that you understand there’s a difference between military spending and defense spending. I’m tired of all the militarism that we are involved in. And we’re wasting this money in getting us involved. And I agree, we are still in danger, but most of the danger comes by our lack of wisdom on how we run our foreign policy.
So I would say there’s a lot of room to cut on the military, but not on the defense. You can slash the military spending. We don’t need to be building airplanes that were used in World War II — we’re always fighting the last war.
But we’re under great threat, because we occupy so many countries.
We’re in 130 countries. We have 900 bases around the world. We’re going broke.
The purpose of al Qaeda was to attack us, invite us over there, where they can target us. And they have been doing it. They have more attacks against us and the American interests per month than occurred in all the years before 9/11, but we’re there occupying their land. And if we think that we can do that and not have retaliation, we’re kidding ourselves. We have to be honest with ourselves. What would we do if another country, say, China, did to us what we do to all those countries over there?
(APPLAUSE)
PAUL: So I would say a policy — a foreign policy that takes care of our national defense, that we’re willing to get along with people and trade with people, as the founders advised, there’s no authority in the Constitution to be the policeman of the world, and no nation-building. Just remember, George Bush won the presidency on that platform in the year 2000. And I still think it’s a good platform.
BLITZER: All right.
(APPLAUSE) BLITZER: Let me let Senator Santorum respond, because I know you strongly disagree.
SANTORUM: On your Web site on 9/11, you had a blog post that basically blamed the United States for 9/11. On your Web site, yesterday, you said that it was our actions that brought about the actions of 9/11.
Now, Congressman Paul, that is irresponsible. The president of the United States — someone who is running for the president of the United States in the Republican Party should not be parroting what Osama bin Laden said on 9/11.
(APPLAUSE)
SANTORUM: We should have — we are not being attacked and we were not attacked because of our actions. We were attacked, as Newt talked about, because we have a civilization that is antithetical to the civilization of the jihadists. And they want to kill us because of who we are and what we stand for. And we stand for American exceptionalism, we stand for freedom and opportunity for everybody around the world, and I am not ashamed to do that.
(APPLAUSE)
BLITZER: Thirty second, Mr. Paul.
PAUL: As long as this country follows that idea, we’re going to be under a lot of danger. This whole idea that the whole Muslim world is responsible for this, and they’re attacking us because we’re free and prosperous, that is just not true.
Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda have been explicit — they have been explicit, and they wrote and said that we attacked America because you had bases on our holy land in Saudi Arabia, you do not give Palestinians fair treatment, and you have been bombing —
(BOOING)
PAUL: I didn’t say that. I’m trying to get you to understand what the motive was behind the bombing, at the same time we had been bombing and killing hundreds of thousands of Iraqis for 10 years.
Would you be annoyed? If you’re not annoyed, then there’s some problem.
http://caucuses.desmoinesregister.com/2011/09/20/paul-will-miss-his-council-bluffs-stop/