New Ron Paul book "Swords into Plowshares" comes out on Friday, July 17th

[jct74]

Swords into Plowshares

Paperback – July 17, 2015

by Ron Paul (Author), Adam Dick (Editor)


http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51jQ2zmRwxL.jpg



In his latest book, Swords into Plowshares, Dr. Paul reveals an intensely personal side as he reflects on growing up during World War II. The book also provides a powerful critique of the corruption and corrosion produced by a 20th century full of war and killing. Ever the optimist, however, Paul leaves behind the ashes of a 20th century of war to finish with a stirring, liberating view of the future we may choose if we turn from war and violence.


Product Details

Paperback: 237 pages
Publisher: Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity (July 17, 2015)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0996426507
ISBN-13: 978-0996426503

http://www.amazon.com/Swords-into-Plowshares-Ron-Paul/dp/0996426507

[Sola_Fide]

Great title.

[TaftFan]

Does Ron write his books? He keeps churning them out.

[timosman]

Does Ron write his books? He keeps churning them out.

Yeah, too many for my taste plus a cheesy title straight from middle ages, before Columbus "discovered" America.

[jj-]

Does Ron write his books? He keeps churning them out.

Some I'm sure he does, some he lets Tom Woods do the work.

Tom Woods is one of the clumsiest ghostwriters. He really embarrassed everyone around him unnecessarily. lol, he even wrote his own glowing review of his own book pretending it was Ron's.

[Sola_Fide]

Yeah, too many for my taste plus a cheesy title straight from middle ages, before Columbus "discovered" America.

Huh? That is a phrase from the Bible.

[Sola_Fide]

Some I'm sure he does, some he lets Tom Woods do the work.

Tom Woods is one of the clumsiest ghostwriters. He really embarrassed everyone around him unnecessarily. lol, he even wrote his own glowing review of his own book pretending it was Ron's.

Example?

[TaftFan]

Some I'm sure he does, some he lets Tom Woods do the work.

Tom Woods is one of the clumsiest ghostwriters. He really embarrassed everyone around him unnecessarily. lol, he even wrote his own glowing review of his own book pretending it was Ron's.

Which book was that?

[timosman]

Huh? That is a phrase from the Bible.

Even worse.

[Sola_Fide]

Even worse.

Why's that?

[timosman]

Why's that?
Limited appeal.

[angelatc]

Some I'm sure he does, some he lets Tom Woods do the work.

Tom Woods is one of the clumsiest ghostwriters. He really embarrassed everyone around him unnecessarily. lol, he even wrote his own glowing review of his own book pretending it was Ron's.

Jesse - is that you?

[Sola_Fide]

Limited appeal.

For who?

[timosman]

For who?

Anybody except the Amish.

[Sola_Fide]

Anybody except the Amish.

Do you know what the Amish believe?

[jj-]

Jesse - is that you?

:rolleyes:

Tom Woods is a lousy ghostwriter. Making an obvious observation is not something that Benton typically does.

[angelatc]

:rolleyes:

Tom Woods is a lousy ghostwriter. Making an obvious observation is not something that Benton typically does.

Slamming Tom Woods for no apparent reason is something that Benton routinely does.

[jj-]

Slamming Tom Woods for no apparent reason is something that Benton routinely does.

the reason is being a lousy ghostwriter.

[timosman]

the reason is being a lousy ghostwriter.

Do we have a pattern here - lousy ghostwriter, lousy campaign manager ? Why are the Pauls surrounding themselves with such people ?

[jj-]

Do we have a pattern here - lousy ghostwriter, lousy campaign manager ? Why are the Pauls surrounding themselves with such people ?

The weirdest thing is the follower who thinks that if you notice the ghostwriter is lousy, you must be the lousy former campaign manager!

[SneakyFrenchSpy]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's the 1st time Dr. Paul has a photo of himself on the cover. I remember that stood out quite a bit and was discussed around here during the 2008 & 2012 campaigns, when all other candidates had their mug on their books but he'd chosen to stay away from that. I wonder what changed but I'm glad he's going for the 'Gentle Grandpa' vibe this time... how could anyone not like him?

[angelatc]

The weirdest thing is the follower who thinks that if you notice the ghostwriter is lousy, you must be the lousy former campaign manager!

What piqued my interest wasn't that observation, it was this:
lol, he even wrote his own glowing review of his own book pretending it was Ron's. That seems like something only an insider would know. And Jesse is the only insider I know of that never misses the chance to trash Tom.

[timosman]

What piqued my interest wasn't that observation, it was this: That seems like something only an insider would know. And Jesse is the only insider I know of that never misses the chance to trash Tom.

These guys are old pals


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sw_B5bx8GKc

[specsaregood]

What piqued my interest wasn't that observation, it was this: That seems like something only an insider would know. And Jesse is the only insider I know of that never misses the chance to trash Tom.

No, I recall that being pointed out and mocked way back when.

[angelatc]

No, I recall that being pointed out and mocked way back when.
Wait - are you telling me I may be wrong about something? That would make twice in a day. Blasphemy, I say.

(not really. I probably missed it. )

[fr33]

It's an interesting title. I'll definitely buy it. Nobody here has ever made the choice between swords and a plow made from swords. 95% here have never owned either object. I expect it will be a great anti-war book.

[fr33]

Maybe a more relate-able title could be "Turning recycled chairs into drones".

[William Tell]

Title is good Biblical reference.

[phill4paul]

Wonder if he will cover Chris Kyle.

"As a veteran, I certainly recognize that this weekend's violence and killing of Chris Kyle were a tragic and sad event. My condolences and prayers go out to Mr. Kyle’s family. Unconstitutional and unnecessary wars have endless unintended consequences. A policy of non-violence, as Christ preached, would have prevented this and similar tragedies. -REP"

[UWDude]

The weirdest thing is the follower who thinks that if you notice the ghostwriter is lousy, you must be the lousy former campaign manager!

The only weirder thing would be if you actually were Jesse.

I think the title is great.

[UWDude]

The weirdest thing is the follower who thinks that if you notice the ghostwriter is lousy, you must be the lousy former campaign manager!

The only weirder thing would be if you actually were Jesse.

I think the title is great.

*sigh* Ron Paul. It is in my cart. Thanks to the Amazon link, whoever. I'd love to hear Ron's WW II stories.

[NewRightLibertarian]

Nice. Hopefully it was ghost-written by Woods, and if it makes the butthurt Republican-wannabe crybabies bitch and moan - even better!

[jct74]

618164893867376640

[Suzanimal]

618164893867376640

Go, Ron, Go!

Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

Ron Paul’s amazing new book, Swords into Plowshares, has zoomed from lower than #200,000, to #689 on the Amazon rankings. Not bought your copy yet? We, indeed the whole world, need this book to debut at #1 on July 17th, when it ships. Give a much-deserved comeuppance to the neocons and the merchants of death. Buy Swords into Plowshares. Bug every warmonger.

https://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/go-ron-go-2/

[Occam's Banana]

Ron Paul Zooming on Amazon
https://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/ron-paul-zooming-on-amazon/
Lew Rockwell (08 July 2015)

Ron’s extremely important new book, Swords into Plowshares (http://www.amazon.com/dp/0996426507/ref=as_sl_pd_tf_lc?tag=lewrockwell&camp=213381&creative=390973&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=0996426507&adid=11A3F8F9MYAWY87HMJXD&&ref-refURL=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.lewrockwell.com%2Flrc-blog%2Fnew-ron-paul-book-3%2F%3Fpreview%3Dtrue%26n_preview_id%3D554283%26pr eview_nonce%3Da06b8829cc), has gone from 236,000 to 275 on Amazon. I’m still shooting for #1 on July 17th, and Amazon is responding by cutting the price from $15.95 to $12.26. Read this book (http://www.amazon.com/dp/0996426507/ref=as_sl_pd_tf_lc?tag=lewrockwell&camp=213381&creative=390973&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=0996426507&adid=11A3F8F9MYAWY87HMJXD&&ref-refURL=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.lewrockwell.com%2Flrc-blog%2Fnew-ron-paul-book-3%2F%3Fpreview%3Dtrue%26n_preview_id%3D554283%26pr eview_nonce%3Da06b8829cc). Give it to your children, too. And note, if Ron were running for president this time, he would already be #1 in the Amazon Primary, beating all the candidates with books.

[jct74]

bump

[jct74]

:toady:

[P3ter_Griffin]

This crept up quick. Just placed my order and I'll get it Tuesday. Anyone get theirs today?

[Suzanimal]

This crept up quick. Just placed my order and I'll get it Tuesday. Anyone get theirs today?

Yep. Bought it 5 minutes ago and got it a few seconds later. :)


Items Ordered
Price 9.99
Swords into Plowshares: A Life in Wartime and a Future of Peace and Prosperity [Kindle Edition]
By: Ron Paul
Sold By: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.

[devil21]

I'll always love and admire RP but with each passing day I think he has either completely lost control of his persona or he never had any control over it in the first place. When I saw the title, the first thing I thought was:

http://www.thetruthishere.com/sitebuilder/images/denver-1x-454x288.jpg

http://www.thetruthishere.com/denvermurals.html

Yes, that is from the Denver Airport murals. The promises of world peace come from the NWO globalists. You will have peace just as long as everyone gives up their sovereignty (and right to own weapons) to central world government. Don't worry about that global socialism part....that's just a side benefit. I'll be curious to see if the book's "future" section sounds a lot like NWO doctrine of peace through central control. Lord knows TPTB have basically co-opted everything this movement used to stand for. This forum is full of trolls and shills that never have to follow the site mission. Rand's campaign's marketing and fundraising company is run by a Jesuit, ffs. Now Ron's picture is on books with titles of DIA mural content and promises of a peaceful future. Perhaps this is why populist movements never last. The people that print up and control the money can just buy everyone off eventually. /rant

[Occam's Banana]

I'll always love and admire RP but with each passing day I think he has either completely lost control of his persona or he never had any control over it in the first place. When I saw the title, the first thing I thought was:

http://www.thetruthishere.com/sitebuilder/images/denver-1x-454x288.jpg

http://www.thetruthishere.com/denvermurals.html

Yes, that is from the Denver Airport murals. The promises of world peace come from the NWO globalists. You will have peace just as long as everyone gives up their sovereignty to central world government. Don't worry about that global socialism part....that's just a side benefit. I'll be curious to see if the book's "future" section sounds a lot like NWO doctrine of peace through central control. Lord knows TPTB have basically co-opted everything this movement used to stand for. This forum is full of trolls and shills that never have to follow the site mission. Rand's campaign's marketing and fundraising company is run by a Jesuit, ffs. Now Ron's picture is on books with titles of DIA mural content and promises of a peaceful future. Perhaps this is why populist movements never last. The people that print up and control the money can just buy everyone off eventually. /rant


http://i776.photobucket.com/albums/yy42/grinchpryde/Fun-Pics/image.png

[devil21]

http://i776.photobucket.com/albums/yy42/grinchpryde/Fun-Pics/image.png


If something isn't clear, feel free to ask instead of imitating the meme patrol.

[Occam's Banana]

If something isn't clear, feel free to ask instead of imitating the meme patrol.

I will - when I encounter something that seems to be worthy of any consideration more serious than a meme ....

[kcchiefs6465]

I'll always love and admire RP but with each passing day I think he has either completely lost control of his persona or he never had any control over it in the first place. When I saw the title, the first thing I thought was:

http://www.thetruthishere.com/sitebuilder/images/denver-1x-454x288.jpg

http://www.thetruthishere.com/denvermurals.html

Yes, that is from the Denver Airport murals. The promises of world peace come from the NWO globalists. You will have peace just as long as everyone gives up their sovereignty (and right to own weapons) to central world government. Don't worry about that global socialism part....that's just a side benefit. I'll be curious to see if the book's "future" section sounds a lot like NWO doctrine of peace through central control. Lord knows TPTB have basically co-opted everything this movement used to stand for. This forum is full of trolls and shills that never have to follow the site mission. Rand's campaign's marketing and fundraising company is run by a Jesuit, ffs. Now Ron's picture is on books with titles of DIA mural content and promises of a peaceful future. Perhaps this is why populist movements never last. The people that print up and control the money can just buy everyone off eventually. /rant

Still, there is much tolerance of our constant smaller wars as many people just pretend the wars don’t exist. There’s no real endorsement , but also no real objection. Drone warfare is more sterile. It’s neat— no infantry involvement and thus fewer American casualties. Staring one’s victims in their eyes as they die is discomforting. Thinking about casualties is unsettling. Many people, with other pressing concerns, find it best to slip into denial. Capital punishment to make it more tolerable is a medical IV to put the criminal to “sleep.” No more public square hangings, firing squads, or guillotines. Certainly no one wants to witness collateral damage while “terrorists” defend their homeland from invaders from faraway places. Who wants to be tormented by seeing children and women die at funerals and weddings at our hands? Closing one’s eyes to the destruction is easier than dealing with the reality of “preemptive” war and its ugly consequences. This tolerance of war and the policies driven by the special interests allow for the constant wars with little outrage expressed. This has to change if we are to live in a more peaceful world.


Paul, Ron (2015-07-17). Swords into Plowshares: A Life in Wartime and a Future of Peace and Prosperity (Kindle Locations 252-260). Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity. Kindle Edition.

[kcchiefs6465]

The atmosphere with the Cold War in the 1950s made it difficult even to suggest that the US wasn’t destined to be in charge of a world empire. Today it’s gratifying that millions of people, especially college -age people, are keenly aware of what a noninterventionist foreign policy is all about. The failure of neoconservatism in foreign affairs can no longer be hidden from view. Yet, we have a long way to go to win over those in high places who appear destined to push the US Empire into national bankruptcy. That bankruptcy, though, would soon make unaffordable their pursuit of world domination, especially as that pursuit also becomes less tolerated by a world fed up with US invasions, occupations, and constant spying.

Paul, Ron (2015-07-17). Swords into Plowshares: A Life in Wartime and a Future of Peace and Prosperity (Kindle Locations 295-300). Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity. Kindle Edition.

[kcchiefs6465]

Though the several deaths in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam I was aware of may seem small in number, they led me to consider the tragic losses andconsequential suffering that families endure on all sides of every war. Especially difficult was coming to an understanding that war almost always is based on lies by one’s own government and has nothing to do with ensuring national security, protecting liberty, or defending the Constitution. Though history and the special interests benefiting from wars may suggest that non-interventionism cannot be implemented, there’s no reason to assume that an effort to diminish the probability of war will fail. To not make the effort automatically concedes too much authority to the politicians.

Paul, Ron (2015-07-17). Swords into Plowshares: A Life in Wartime and a Future of Peace and Prosperity (Kindle Locations 349-354). Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity. Kindle Edition.

[Suzanimal]

Not done yet: Ron Paul writes a new book ripping the ‘corruption and corrosion’ of modern life


He ran for president three times, served 12 terms in Congress, has been married 58 years and turns 80 in August. But Ron Paul is not done yet. He published a new book on Friday - “Swords Into Plowshares: A Life in Wartime and a Future of Peace and Prosperity” - based on his life growing up in World War II, and what has become of America since then.

The author takes on many foes, and is aggressive in his views.

“It has often been acknowledged that the Bible says there will always be ‘wars and rumors of wars.’ Some have estimated that over the last 5,000 years over 14,000 wars have been fought, causing more than three and a half billion deaths. In our own history between 1798 and 2015, the US has used military force abroad 369 times in wars and other ‘situations of military conflict or potential conflict or for other than normal peacetime purposes’ according to a Congressional Research Service report,” Mr. Paul writes.

That breaks down to 369 of these conflicts in 217 years.

“That’s more than one and a half instances per year. So far the certainty of war is readily apparent. But must it continue to be so? Is it possible for the basic nature of man to change? I think it can,” the author says.

“The book provides a powerful critique of the corruption and corrosion produced by a 20th century full of war and killing,” publishing notes say. “Ever the optimist, however, Paul leaves behind the ashes of a 20th century of war to finish with a stirring, liberating view of the future we may choose if we turn from war and violence.”

Mr. Paul has self published the 237-page book through the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity, which the former lawmaker deems an educational arm of his Foundation for Rational Economics and Education, a non-profit he established in 1976. The organizational website features his weekly column, news stories, a daily blog, a “Neocon Watch’ and alerts for scholarships, seminars, a newly formed peace coalition and a diplomatic project.

Find the book here

In the meantime, Mr. Paul, a Libertarian, still weighs in on politics, and remains active with Campaign for Liberty, a non-profit with the motto, “Reclaim the Republic, restore the Constitution.”

In a Fox News interview earlier this week he had some words for Republican hopeful Donald Trump, calling the billionaire a polar opposite of a Libertarian - but “an authoritarian and that’s the way he claims he made all his money. So I see that as dangerous.”

Mr. Paul has not been forgotten by his many young fans who rallied behind the campaign slogan “Who is Ron Paul?” during the candidate’s presidential runs, and showed up by the thousands for rallies staged as an alternative for voters disenchanted by big politics. Fan web sites are many. Mr. Paul, in turn, still reaches out to engage future voters through grassroots style training - and he does so with much old school vigor.

“Are you ready to effect major political change and reclaim your lost liberties? Are you ready to make the politicians finally listen and undo the harm they have done over the years? The Liberty Movement in our country has grown by leaps and bounds If you’re ready to join the fight to pressure the new class of politicians to defend our liberties, you must attend this class,” Mr. Paul advises in an outreach for a one-day political leadership school, scheduled in York, Pennsylvania on Saturday.

“You will learn: How to be respected and feared by the political class. How mass movements fail and why. How to choose battles that will grow your organization. How to pass and defeat legislation. How to target legislators who vote against your bill and which to go after first,” Mr. Paul notes.



Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jul/17/ron-paul-emerges-new-book-swords-plowshares/#ixzz3gKPp50PV
Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter

[Suzanimal]

Ron Paul at His Best

By Daniel R. Coats
July 20, 2015

This is the best book by Ron Paul that I have had the joy to read. It is an intimate look into the private thought life of Ron Paul as he grew up and lived in an age under the constant threat of war. He talks about his experiences growing up during World War II, how the events of the Korean war shaped his school years and how the war in Vietnam caught him up as a young medical practitioner. He talks about his intellectual journey and what resources brought him to a pro-peace philosophy. Of course, he ties everything together into a consistent liberty philosophy as he did with his entire political career. In this book, he actually chides himself for not being more anti-war!

This book may be the closest to an autobiography that we may get from Dr. Paul. It is chock-full of anecdotes, quotes from sources that he has gleaned from over time, and each chapter heading includes lines of poetry that are appropriate to accompany each chapter’s main point. If his Youtube videos of house floor speeches and grillings of Fed chairmen and Presidential debates show the analytical and public side of Ron Paul, this book shows his emotional and deeply personal side. He mourns the tragedy of people he knew who were sent off to senseless wars never to come back, recounts stories of war in which the individuals sent to fight were able to rebel against the chickenhawks who sent them, and he fiercely cuts down the political class and military-industrial complex that profits off of lies and murder. There is a part in chapter 1 in which he reflects on the how as a boy he cheered when FDR died and his father scolded him for cheering the death of anyone. I think this was deeply formative in his life that our political opponents are still human beings. It is the chickenhawks that make us dehumanize others. If we are to pursue peace we must constantly be seeking the good in others. This does not make us weak and can only make us stronger gaining a greater perspective than to simply write people off as Democrats or Republicans or liberals or conservatives or irrational “others” that must either be controlled with the coercive violence of the State. He takes no prisoners and has no pity in his condemnation of those who have lied us into the welfare-warfare state we now live under. While ruthless in his take down of the political masterminds behind these murderous schemes he remains gentle in his pleas for the public to be persuaded that peace is not only morally right but in America’s best interests.

Of course, he shows how the Federal Reserve and the perversion of the monetary system, the wrecking of the economy, the loss of civil liberty at home, and the terrible blowback of endless unjust foreign wars all tie in together in a cohesive political philosophy of liberty. This is not how the Founding Fathers who wrote the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution envisioned America to be. One gets the sense in reading this book that not only is this book intended to be a restatement of many of the political opinions Ron has tried to get the word out on but it is also a deep reflection of his entire life and what he feels to be most important in passing on.

...
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2015/07/no_author/ron-paul-at-his-best/

[SpiritOf1776_J4]

Title is good Biblical reference.

A man with good taste.

[Okie RP fan]

I ordered it and it came in the other day. Going to queue it up behind all of the other books I have (pledging to not watch tv, or at least watch less than 5 hours of tv a week is great), the line is quite long.

Seems like it will be a fairly quick and easy read with plenty of material to utilize in conversations, most of his books contain that.

[Sola_Fide]

I'll always love and admire RP but with each passing day I think he has either completely lost control of his persona or he never had any control over it in the first place. When I saw the title, the first thing I thought was:

http://www.thetruthishere.com/sitebuilder/images/denver-1x-454x288.jpg

http://www.thetruthishere.com/denvermurals.html

Yes, that is from the Denver Airport murals. The promises of world peace come from the NWO globalists. You will have peace just as long as everyone gives up their sovereignty (and right to own weapons) to central world government. Don't worry about that global socialism part....that's just a side benefit. I'll be curious to see if the book's "future" section sounds a lot like NWO doctrine of peace through central control. Lord knows TPTB have basically co-opted everything this movement used to stand for. This forum is full of trolls and shills that never have to follow the site mission. Rand's campaign's marketing and fundraising company is run by a Jesuit, ffs. Now Ron's picture is on books with titles of DIA mural content and promises of a peaceful future. Perhaps this is why populist movements never last. The people that print up and control the money can just buy everyone off eventually. /rant

Hmmm. What are you really trying to say here? I'm honestly curious.

[Suzanimal]

Ron Paul, Champion of God’s Peace
By Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.
August 1, 2015


Ronald Reagan used to be called the Teflon president, on the grounds that no matter what gaffe or scandal engulfed him, it never stuck: he didn’t suffer in the polls. If Reagan was the Teflon president, the military is America’s Teflon institution. Even people who oppose whatever the current war happens to be can be counted on to “support the troops” and to live by the comforting delusion that whatever aberrations may be evident today, the system itself is basically sound.

To add insult to injury, whenever the US government gears up for yet another military intervention, it’s people who pretend to favor “limited government,” and who pride themselves on not falling for government propaganda, who can be counted on to stand up and salute.

I had the rare honor of serving as Ron Paul’s congressional chief of staff, and observed him in many proud moments in those days, and in his presidential campaigns. But Ron’s new book Swords into Plowshares: A Life in Wartime and a Future of Peace and Prosperity, a plainspoken and relentless case against war that ranks alongside Smedley Butler’s classic War Is a Racket, is possibly the proudest Ron Paul moment of all.

It’s been calculated that over the past 5,000 years there have been 14,000 wars fought, resulting in three and a half billion deaths. In the United States, between 1798 and 2015 there have been 369 uses of military force abroad. We have been conditioned to accept this as normal, or at the very least unavoidable. We are told to stifle any moral qualms we may have about mass killing on the question-begging grounds that, after all, “it’s war.”

...

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2015/08/lew-rockwell/ron-paul-champion-of-gods-peace/

[Occam's Banana]

Ron Paul, Champion of God’s Peace
By Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.
August 1, 2015


You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Suzanimal again.

Excellent - so excellent, I'm gonna post the whole thing.

That Ron Paul guy sure does seem like a pretty decent fella.

I don't know about this Lew Rockwell character, though. I've heard he's a "casual (http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?478095-Rand-Super-Pac-Attacks-Rand-Super-Pac&p=5918075&viewfull=1#post5918075)" and "desperate (http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?479149-Lew-Rockwell-giddy-at-prospect-of-Rand-s-demise&p=5940052&viewfull=1#post5940052)" liar who has "zero personal integrity." :eek:

Anyway, Tom Woods seems to think Rockwell is a good man (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B72FfCASHRg#t=430). (But then, that probably just means that Tom is a lying, zero-integrity "cultist," too ... :rolleyes:)

Ron Paul, Champion of God's Peace
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2015/08/lew-rockwell/ron-paul-champion-of-gods-peace/
Lew Rockwell (01 August 2015)

Ronald Reagan used to be called the Teflon president, on the grounds that no matter what gaffe or scandal engulfed him, it never stuck: he didn’t suffer in the polls. If Reagan was the Teflon president, the military is America’s Teflon institution. Even people who oppose whatever the current war happens to be can be counted on to “support the troops” and to live by the comforting delusion that whatever aberrations may be evident today, the system itself is basically sound.

To add insult to injury, whenever the US government gears up for yet another military intervention, it’s people who pretend to favor “limited government,” and who pride themselves on not falling for government propaganda, who can be counted on to stand up and salute.

I had the rare honor of serving as Ron Paul’s congressional chief of staff, and observed him in many proud moments in those days, and in his presidential campaigns. But Ron’s new book Swords into Plowshares: A Life in Wartime and a Future of Peace and Prosperity (http://www.amazon.com/dp/0996426507/ref=as_sl_pc_tf_lc?tag=lewrockwell&camp=213381&creative=390973&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=0996426507&adid=14TEAA3H32EJVJ8H3DWJ&&ref-refURL=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.lewrockwell.com%2F%3Fpost _type%3Darticle%26p%3D557344%26preview%3Dtrue), a plainspoken and relentless case against war that ranks alongside Smedley Butler’s classic War Is a Racket, is possibly the proudest Ron Paul moment of all.

It’s been calculated that over the past 5,000 years there have been 14,000 wars fought, resulting in three and a half billion deaths. In the United States, between 1798 and 2015 there have been 369 uses of military force abroad. We have been conditioned to accept this as normal, or at the very least unavoidable. We are told to stifle any moral qualms we may have about mass killing on the question-begging grounds that, after all, “it’s war.”

Ron, on this as on a wide array of other topics, isn’t prepared to accept the conventional platitudes, and a recurring theme in his book involves speculating on whether, in the same way the human race has advanced so extraordinarily from a technological point of view, we might be capable of a comparable moral advance as well.

There is much in this book for libertarians and indeed all opponents of war to enjoy – for starters, a refutation of the claim that war is “good for the economy,” a discussion of the dangers of “blowback” posed by foreign interventionism, and an overview of the War on Terror from a noninterventionist perspective. But there is a profoundly personal dimension to this book as well, as we follow Ron’s life from his childhood to the present and the evolution of his thought on war. I’ll leave readers to discover these gems for themselves.

Likewise, Ron relates some little-known stories of war. In one, it’s two weeks after D-Day, and Captain Jack Tueller decided to play his trumpet that evening. He was instructed not to do so: his commander explained that a German sniper had still not been captured from the day’s battle. Figuring the sniper was a frightened young man not unlike himself, he played the German song “Lili Marleen.” The sniper surrendered to the Americans the next day.

Before being sent off to prison, the sniper asked to meet the trumpet player. He said, through tears, “When I heard that number that you played I thought about my fiancée in Germany. I thought about my mother and dad and about my brothers and sisters, and I could not fire.”

“He stuck out his hand and I shook the hand of the enemy,” Tueller recalls. “He was no enemy. He was scared and lonely like me.”

Another story takes place just before Christmas 1943. Charlie Brown, a 21-year-old farm boy from West Virginia was on his first combat mission as a pilot when his B-17 was seriously damaged over Germany. With half his crew dead or wounded, he was struggling to get his plane back to England when a German fighter came within three feet of his right wingtip. But Franz Stigler, the German pilot, did not fire. Instead, he simply nodded, pointed, and flew off, allowing Brown to make his way back to England.

Some 46 years later, the two men met again. Brown finally got to ask Stigler why he had been pointing. Stigler replied that he was trying to tell Brown to fly to Sweden, which was closer. But since Brown knew only how to get back to England, that’s where he went.

The two men became close friends, even fishing buddies. Stigler said that saving Brown’s life was the only good thing that came out of the whole war for him.

You won’t be surprised to learn that in addition to human-interest anecdotes like these, Ron spends time in Swords into Plowshares (http://www.amazon.com/dp/0996426507/ref=as_sl_pc_tf_lc?tag=lewrockwell&camp=213381&creative=390973&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=0996426507&adid=14TEAA3H32EJVJ8H3DWJ&&ref-refURL=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.lewrockwell.com%2F%3Fpost _type%3Darticle%26p%3D557344%26preview%3Dtrue) linking central banking and war, one of his perennial themes over the years. It isn’t for nothing that again and again, countries abandoned the gold standard when they went to war.

We rarely pause to consider what that tells us. If they needed to abandon the gold standard to go to war, that means the gold standard was a barrier against war. Of course, the ease with which governments could abandon the gold standard serves to remind us of the need to separate money and state altogether, and that the state cannot be trusted to maintain a sound money standard.

As always, Ron is at his fiery best when he unleashes on the neoconservatives, whose every overseas fiasco becomes a justification for still another fiasco six months later. He invites us to consider a typical remark by neoconservative Michael Ledeen: “Paradoxically, peace increases our peril, by making discipline less urgent, encouraging some of our worst instincts, and depriving us of some of our best leaders.”

Note that it is peace, according to Ledeen, and not war, that encourages our worst instincts. This was the view of Theodore Roosevelt, loved and admired by progressives and neoconservatives alike, who considered prolonged peace a deplorable state that made a people flabby and otiose.

Neocons complain when libertarians describe them as “pro-war” – why, they favor war only as a last resort, they assure us, and only because there are bad people in the world – but how else can we describe the views of Ledeen, who to my knowledge has never been publicly taken to task by any other neocon?

(Perhaps my favorite of Ron’s collection of ghoulish neocon quotations, though, if only for its obliviously Orwellian quality, is George W. Bush’s remark from June 2002: “I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we’re really talking about peace.”)

Meanwhile, the American people have been indoctrinated into a cult of the veteran, whom evangelicals blasphemously compare to Jesus Christ, and whereby everyone is expected to salute, applaud, and offer ostentatious thanks for the veteran’s “service.”

Here, by contrast, is Ron:


“Service” in our military to invade, occupy, and oppress countries in order to extend [the] US Empire must not be glorified as a “heroic” and sacred effort. My five years in the Air Force during the 1960s did not qualify me as any sort of hero. My primary thoughts now about that period of time are: “Why was I so complacent, and why did I so rarely seriously question the wisdom of the Vietnam War?”

Ron calls upon the peoples of the world to resist their governments’ calls to war and to refuse to take part in violent conflict. “If the authoritarians continue to abuse power in spite of constitutional and moral limits,” he writes, “the only recourse left is for the people to go on strike and refuse to sanction the wars and thefts. Deny the dictators your money and your bodies…. The more this is a worldwide movement, the better.”

This is why Ron is such a fan of the song “Universal Soldier (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UC9pc4U40sI),” which he asked singer Aimee Allen to perform at his dramatic Rally for the Republic in 2008. The man who enlists in the military and simply goes along with the prevailing current of opinion is the universal soldier. If he refused to “serve” and to fight, there could be no wars. Even Ron, a flight surgeon who never fired a shot, looks back on his time in the military and asks himself: why did I not resist? Why did I go along?

Needless to say, few among our political class – people who, generally speaking, have rather more to repent of than mild Ron Paul – reflect seriously on their moral choices, or rebuke themselves publicly.

When people read Swords into Plowshares (http://www.amazon.com/dp/0996426507/ref=as_sl_pc_tf_lc?tag=lewrockwell&camp=213381&creative=390973&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=0996426507&adid=14TEAA3H32EJVJ8H3DWJ&&ref-refURL=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.lewrockwell.com%2F%3Fpost _type%3Darticle%26p%3D557344%26preview%3Dtrue) generations from now – and they will – they will marvel that such a man actually served in the US Congress, and defied every campaign of war propaganda right on the House floor. But what’s great about Ron is not just his honesty, but also his constant intellectual growth – with the passage of time he has become an ever-more radical champion of freedom. His evolution is especially plain in this book, as you’ll discover for yourself.

One of the most important things Ron accomplished in public life was to show that it’s possible to oppose war without being a leftist. He likewise explained that a foreign policy of peace and nonintervention was a central, indispensable feature of the message of freedom, and not just an odd personality quirk of Ron Paul – as the many people who said “I like Ron Paul except his foreign policy” seem to have believed.

Bernie Sanders pretends to be antiwar, but as usual with socialists, a closer look shows he doesn’t really mean it. But even if he did, as a socialist he simply wants to point the guns at different targets – the undifferentiated aggregates like “the rich” to whom he urges his followers to direct their uncomprehending hate. Ron, on the other hand, is calling on us to put the guns down, and for peaceful interaction both between nations and among individuals.

It is a position most people had never heard of before 2008, since election campaigns are all about grabbing the machinery of state and pointing its guns at whatever group the eventual victor despises. But Ron captured the imaginations of millions of intelligent young people, whose brains hadn’t yet been deformed by an American political culture designed to deprive them of humane possibilities.

Ron turns 80 this month, and shows no sign of letting up in his life’s work of truth-telling. Wish Ron a happy birthday (https://mises.org/events/80th-birthday-party-ron-paul) by joining us for a celebration in Lake Jackson on August 15, and by reading this extraordinary book.


"Ron Paul, Champion of God's Peace (https://www.lewrockwell.com/2015/08/lew-rockwell/ron-paul-champion-of-gods-peace/)" by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

[amartin315]

for those that have read the book, does ron discuss the civil war and the rationale for getting into wwii? and the idea that we should not go to war to save people from genocide?

[tsai3904]

If anyone is interested in purchasing this book, Amazon is offering 30% off one book with promo code HOLIDAY30. The code expires 11/29/15.

http://www.amazon.com/Swords-into-Plowshares-Wartime-Prosperity/dp/0996426523

[A. Havnes]

Sounds like some of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s books, which is hardly a bad thing. With all the book on war, why we need to go to war, and even out-and-out commit genocidal atrocities, we need books that tell us there's a better way to go, and giving it a title from the Bible doesn't limit it's appeal. What it does is call out the war-monger Christians and say, "This isn't what Christians stand for."