Category Archives: Ron Paul

After serving in the US Air Force as a flight surgeon, I started an Ob/Gyn practice in Brazoria County, Texas and have since delivered over 4,000 babies. I decided to enter politics when President Nixon broke the last link between the dollar and gold, thus starting the inflation that continues to destroy the value of the dollar and undermine the earnings of all Americans.

I have served ten terms in Congress and have never wavered from my commitment to the Constitution and the principles of a free society. In 1976, I was one of four sitting GOP Congressmen to endorse the upstart Ronald Reagan in the Republican primaries. But I also spoke out against the unprecedented deficits incurred by Reagan's administration.

For my relentless opposition to unconstitutional legislation, I have been called: "Dr. No" The "Taxpayers' Best Friend" by the the National Taxpayers Union The "one exception to the Gang of 535" on Capitol Hill by former Treasury Secretary William Simon.

I have worked tirelessly for limited constitutional government, individual rights, low taxes, free markets, a peaceful foreign policy and sound monetary policies. I am running for President as a Republican to bring the Grand Old Party back to its roots as the party of the 1994 Revolution, President Reagan, Sen. Goldwater and Sen. Taft.

My Google interview is available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCM_wQy4YVg

Specialties:Obstetrics, gynecology, Austrian economics, monetary theory, the U.S. Constitution, American history, civil liberties, political activism.

Link:
Ron Paul | LinkedIn

President, 2012-05-29 Lost with 11.94% U.S. House District 14, 2010 General Election Won with 75.99% U.S. House District 14, 2010 Republican Party Primary Election Won with 80.77% U.S. House District 14, 2008 General Election Won with 100.00% U.S. House District 14, 2008 Republican Party Primary Election Won with 70.43% U.S. House District 14, 2006 General Election Won with 60.19% U.S. House District 14, 2006 Republican Party Primary Election Won with 77.64% U.S. House District 14, 2004 General Election Won with 100.00% U.S. House District 14, 2004 Republican Primary Election Won with 100.00% U.S. House District 14, 2002 General Election Won with 68.09% U.S. House District 14, 2002 Republican Primary Election Won with 100.00% U.S. House District 14, 2000 General Election Won with 59.71% U.S. House District 14, 2000 Republican Party Primary Election Won with 100.00% U.S. House District 14, 1998 General Election Won with 55.25% U.S. House District 14, 1998 Republican Primary Won with 100.00% U.S. House District 14, 1996 General Election Won with 51.08% U.S. House District 26, 1996 November Special Election Lost with 0.00% U.S. House District 14, 1996 Republican Party Primary Runoff Election Won with 54.06% U.S. House District 14, 1996 Republican Party Primary Election Went to runoff with 31.97%

Read the rest here:
Ron Paul | The Texas Tribune

Former Congressman Ron Paul, the dad of presidential candidate and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, says he believes states should be allowed to secede from the country, but lamented that concept was destroyed in the Civil War.

Ron Paul, do you favor the rights of states, communities, and individuals to secede? said Paul, reading a question from a listener on his daily show. And, we could get into a discussion about whether states actually have rights, but I think the gist of this question is do they have the authority and should they be able to, yes.

The answer is yes, continued Paul. I think the founders of this country believed that states should be able to secede. They went together voluntarily, its a voluntary contract and they should leave. But, of course, that principle was destroyed with the Civil War.

Paul said it would be real nice if individual people could secede under the principle of individual, but again lamented that wouldnt be possible because of the authoritarians in charge.

If every individual who seceded took care of themselves, it would be a wonderful world, stated Paul. You wouldnt have to take care of them. Thered be no welfare state. There would be no militarism around the world. Under those circumstances that would be very good.

This is the most important thing right now, added Paul.

See the original post:
Ron Paul Says States Should Be Allowed To Secede ...

Sitting Texas Congressman and one time Libertarian Party presidential candidate. The only honest man left in Washington.

I bet Ron Paul's speeches on the floor of congress are a real annoyance to all the theiving, lying, murdering, slime-dripping scumbags there.

A politician who has the ability to purge washington.

I sure hope that I can inherit the legacy left behind for me by the Ron Paul administration.

As a Republican, he has represented Texas's 14th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1997, and represented Texas's 22nd district in 1976 and from 1979 to 1985.

Paul advocates a limited role for the federal government, low taxes, free markets, a non-interventionist foreign policy, and a return to monetary policies based on commodity-backed currency. He has earned the nickname "Dr. No" because he is a medical doctor who votes against the bills that he believes conflict with the Constitution.1 In the words of former Treasury Secretary William Simon, Paul is the "one exception to the Gang of 535" on Capitol Hill.2 He has never voted to raise taxes or congressional pay, and refuses to participate in the congressional pension system.3 He has consistently voted against the USA PATRIOT Act, the Military Commissions Act of 2006, and the Iraq War.

Person 2: "HAHAHA!! Everyone knows no such person exists anymore, they all died with our freedoms and liberties."

Person 1: "Actually, there is one person left who represents those characteristics-- his name is Ron Paul, and he's running for president."

1. Ron Paul doesn't go the gym. He stays fit by exercising his civil rights. 2. Ron Paul delivers babies without his hands. He simply reads them the Bill of Rights and they crawl out in anticipation of freedom. 3. Ron Paul doesn't cut taxes. He kills them with his bare hands. 4. Jesus wears a wrist band that says "What Would Ron Paul Do?" 5. When Ron Paul takes a shower, he doesn't get wet...the water gets Ron Paul. 6. Ron Paul could lead a horse to water AND convince it to drink, but he doesn't believe the government has the right to so he refuses. 7. Ron Paul's midi-chlorian level is off the chart. 8. When Chuck Norris gets scared, he goes to Ron Paul. 9. Studies by the World Health Organization show that Ron Paul is the leading cause of freedom among men. 10. Ron Paul makes the U.S. dollar want to be a better currency.

Capitalism should not be condemned, since we haven't had capitalism. --Ron Paul

Our country's founders cherished liberty, not democracy. --Ron Paul

You wanna get rid of drug crime in this country? Fine, let's just get rid of all the drug laws. --Ron Paul

Ron has never voted to raise taxes. Ron has never voted for an unbalanced budget. Ron has never voted for the Iraq War. Ron has never voted for a federal restriction on gun ownership. Ron has never voted to increase the power of the executive branch. Ron has never voted to raise congressional pay. Ron has never taken a government-paid junket.

Ron voted against the Patriot Act. Ron votes against regulating the Internet. Ron voted against NAFTA and CAFTA. Ron votes against the United Nations. Ron votes against the welfare state. Ron votes against reinstating a military draft.

Ron votes to preserve the constitution. Ron votes to cut government spending. Ron votes to lower healthcare costs. Ron votes to end the war on drugs. Ron votes to protect civil liberties. Ron votes to secure our borders with real immigration reform. Ron votes to eliminate tax funded abortions and to overturn Roe v Wade. Ron votes to protect religious freedom.

Racism is simply an ugly form of collectivism, the mindset that views humans strictly as members of groups rather than individuals . . . By encouraging Americans to adopt a group mentality, the advocates of so-called diversity actually perpetuate racism. Their obsession with racial group identity is inherently racists . . . we should understand that racism will endure until we stop thinking in terms of groups and begin thinking in terms of individual liberty.

-Ron Paul

A verb describing one shooting something (whether it be a lunchsack, basketball, ECT.) and missing its desired target..

Guy tried to pass abill that would have made it impossible for courts to do their cvonstitutional duty to overturn state laws that invade ones right to privacy (allowed under the constitution) He's as much as an actor as anyone else.

Me; So hes going to do that by geting rid of all taxes right? I mean how you going to pay this debt off when you won't have the income tax, tarrifs, or any other tax for that matter?

Ron Paul Fanboy; .......

Read more:
Urban Dictionary: Ron Paul

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., seeks to expand his father's base. The plan, some Ron Paul supporters say, has backfired.

Preaching peace, drug legalization and getting government out of people's lives, libertarian champion Ron Paul won more than 20 percent of the vote in Iowa and New Hampshire during the 2012 Republican presidential primary contest,as his impassioned campaign supporters swamped state parties and gave him a majority of convention delegates in several states.

These are things the former Texas congressmans son, Sen. Rand Paul, and his presidential campaign staff know well. In fact, they reckonedthe Kentucky lawmakercould build upon his father's respectable showings four years later by tactically assuaging the GOP mainstream.

They gambled that activists deserting the younger Paul over his endorsement of establishment Republicans, or for opposing the Iran nuclear deal and proposing war on the Islamic State group, or for crafting nuanced stances on whistleblower Edward Snowden and drug legalization, would be few.

But now, the Paul family ishaving toreassure jittery members of the so-called liberty movement. RandPauls brother, Ronnie,said earlier this year that father and son have the same beliefs. And last month, Ron Paul said even where Rand and I do have minor differences of opinion, I would take Rand's position over any of his opponents' in both parties every time.

[READ: Second GOP Debate to Feature Foreign Policy Test]

As Rand Pauls once-promising campaign registers as low as 1 and 2 percent in national polls, a survey of his fathers 2012 state-level leadership reveals continued cause for concern among the passionate base that was crucial for Ron Paul, with some of those leaders having utterly lost faith inthe younger family member as a candidate and a bearer of their message.

Ron had paved a path that was ripe for a continuation, says Marianne Stebbins, a small businesswoman who chaired Ron Pauls 2012 campaign efforts in Minnesota. If [Rand Paul] had a little more of his dad's background, philosophy and demeanor, he would be doing much better.

Ron Paul at the 2012 Republican National Convention in Tampa

Stebbins and her compatriots won for the elder Paul 32 of 40 Minnesota delegates to the GOP national convention in 2012. Their commitment to game the system and flood the state party brought their candidate victory, even though he came in second in the states caucuses.

Stebbins soured on the younger Paul over some of his positions, including his signing of a Senate GOP letter that aimed to undermine the Iran nuclear deal and what she calls his not standing up for Edward Snowden. Though Paul sued to end one of the mass surveillance programs Snowden exposed, hes avoided a full-throated endorsement of the exiled whistleblower, suggesting he share a cell with Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who allegedly perjured himself when speaking about the scope of dragnet data collection.

[ALSO: Ben Carson's Quiet Charm Offensive]

At this point in the game, Stebbins says, Rand needs to go back to the Senate and emulate his father there. A vast change now wouldn't be taken as sincere.

At the opposite end of the MississippiRiver, Ron Pauls 2012 campaign teamsnagged him a majority of Louisianas national convention delegates (before furious pushback and a deal reducing the haul). That state teams co-chairman, businessman Charlie Davis, doesnt share Stebbins frustration.

When the Iowa caucus finally arrives, it is very likely that liberty-leaning Republican activists will pick Sen. Rand Paul as the candidate that is most ideologically aligned with them, Davis says. Ron surged at the end and I think that Rand will as well.

The stark difference in opinion among veterans of the 2012 campaign is also seen between leaders of the Paul team that year in Iowa and New Hampshire.

[EARLIER: Rand Paul Could Win Libertarian Nomination, Too]

New Hampshire state Sen. Andy Sanborn, co-chairman of the 2012 campaign in his state, where RonPaul placed second, supports Rand Pauls campaign strategy and believes he ultimately will surge.

Unlike the race between Dr. Ron Paul and Mitt Romney, this race with its 17to18 candidates combined with the individual narrativesis resulting in temporary wide swings in support and polling, but no question there continues to be one common thread: that voters are just fed up with the establishment, Sanborn says. No candidate has been fighting the Washington machine with more passion than Sen. Paul [and] I fully expect that when the race begins to settle down from these expected summer flings, that Sen. Paul will continue to consolidate both his base, as well as those new, disaffected voters.

See Photos

But in Iowa, where Ron Paul supporters took over the state Republican Party and won their candidate22 of 28 convention votes, despite his coming in a close third in the state caucuses, longtime campaign leader Drew Ivers has become disillusioned.

Ivers served as Ron Pauls Iowa campaign chairman in both 2008 and 2012 and isnt endorsing Rand Paul this year. He says the senatorhas ruined a golden opportunity for the liberty movement.

Updated on Sept. 16, 2015: Comment from Sergio Gor was added to this article.

Read more from the original source:
Ron Paul's Most Ardent Fans Split on Sagging Rand - US News

The Republican Party doesn't seem to understand the fact that threats to the United States originate from the actions of human beings. These human beings resort to violence when they are marginalized by society to the point where they believe that the only way to better their country is to work around the democratic system through violence.

Anhvinh Doanvo

Research assistant for the Global Initiative for Civil Society and Conflict. Writer for The Hill.

Bernie Sanders, to put this another way, doesn't need a focus group or a poll to tell him what he ought to stand for. He already knows what he stands for, and he'll freely tell you exactly what that is.

The idea of the "conservatarian" is all the rage these days in Republican circles. Conservatarian is a philosophy that is something of a hybrid between conservatives and libertarians. It doesn't have a firm ideological statement, but it does have some guiding principles.

Kevin Price

Publisher and Editor in Chief, US Daily Review

Of course if the "short-fingered vulgarian" -- to borrow a Spy Magazine term of endearment for Mr. Trump -- runs as a Independent, then, as in 1992 (when Ross Perot stole huge numbers of the GOP vote), the Republicans don't have a prayer, no matter whom they run.

James Marshall Crotty

Forbes Education Columnist; Author, 'How to Talk American'; Director, 'Crotty's Kids'; Co-founder, 'Monk Magazine'

Artful advocates advise this about addressing the court: if the facts are on your side, pound the facts; if the law is on your side, pound the law; if neither is on your side, pound the table. Adding to that adage, pusillanimous politicians propose undressing the court: if you fear its decision, strip it of jurisdiction.

At the root of the culture wars lies a fundamental dichotomy in worldviews. Which is more essential to humanity: the individual or the collective?

Dave Pruett

Former NASA researcher; Emeritus Professor of Mathematics, James Madison University

A recent op-ed in the New York Times chastises Rand Paul for being insufficiently libertarian. His critics are particularly upset over his "hawkish" foreign policy, accusing him of abandoning the ideal of individual liberty. The reverse, however, is true

Peter Schwartz

Distinguished Fellow, Ayn Rand Institute; Author, "In Defense of Selfishness"

The younger Paul knows that in the political big leagues, candidates of conviction who refuse to moderate their message or refuse to adapt to the prevailing contemporaneous political sentiment, are often abandoned at the alter by the electoral consumer.

Rich Rubino

Author, 'The Political Bible of Humorous Quotations from American Politics,' 'Make Every Vote Equal What a Novel Idea,' and The Political Bible of Little Known Facts in American Politics

By and large, Americans have come to believe, although erroneously, that Patriotism is tantamount to support for the Constitutional system of government and the policies instituted by the government. In truth, an American Patriot can love his/her country while opposing the polices of the government.

Rich Rubino

Author, 'The Political Bible of Humorous Quotations from American Politics,' 'Make Every Vote Equal What a Novel Idea,' and The Political Bible of Little Known Facts in American Politics

Ex-New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said that Obama doesn't love America. But you know who actually doesn't love America? Secessionists don't. And it wasn't too hard to figure that one out.

John A. Tures

Political science professor, LaGrange College in Georgia

Jeff Danziger

Political cartoonist syndicated by the NYTimes worldwide

The Republican Party and the political media world are already off to the 2016 horse races. It is way too early for any real analysis of the public's mood, but that doesn't stop the oddsmaking within the Beltway. After all, the Democratic nomination race is setting up to be a snoozer, so why not get started obsessing over the Republican race?

With Mitt Romney dropping his presidential bid, Republican campaign financiers are searching for a candidate to lead the crusade against the 47 percent. Charles G. Koch is troubled.

When Mitt Romney made his announcement that he wouldn't make another presidential run (for now), it didn't take long for pundits to add their thoughts. Some pointed out that Reagan won on his third presidential campaign. But the other 12 who tried since 1952 didn't.

John A. Tures

Political science professor, LaGrange College in Georgia

More than a week after the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris, American comedians have made it clear that they stand with their fellow satirists in France. There were others who joined the condemnation as well, and not just from comedy.

While American justice has long been extraordinarily repressive and discriminatory, the events of 2014 arguably led more people to realize the magnitude of the problem.

Original post:
Ron Paul: Pictures, Videos, Breaking News - Huffington Post

Former U.S. Rep. Ron Paul lays out a national security strategy for the United States in his book, Swords into Plowshares, which Carl von Clausewitz , the author of On War, would have approved. Clausewitz, a Prussian general in the early Nineteenth Century, is considered perhaps the Wests most insightful strategist, and On War is his classic work on the interrelationship between politics and war.

A close reading of On War reveals a book far more on the strategy of statecraft, that is Grand Strategy, than it is on the mere strategy of warfare. Unfortunately, very few readers have understood that. Indeed, Clausewitzs target audience may have been principally civilian policy makers with his view that the political perspective must remain dominant over the military point of view in the conduct of war.

Whether or not Ron Paul ever read Clausewitz, Swords into Plowshares restores a proper understanding of statecraft as Clausewitz understood it and todays American leaders fail to.

Helmuth von Moltke, who became Chief of the Prussian General Staff in 1857, almost immediately misappropriated and reinterpreted On War for his own militaristic purposes. (Clausewitz died in 1831.) Moltke was followed in this in 1883, when Prussian General Count Colmar von der Goltz, later known as the Butcher of Belgium in World War I, while paying homage to Clausewitz, wrote The Nation in Arms, a revision of Clausewitzs On War and its complete opposite.

Moltke and Goltz twisted Clausewitzs arguments in the interests of the Prussian military class that had come into full flower after Clausewitzs time. For one, they self-servingly distorted On War by reversing the principle of civilian control to argue civilians must not interfere with military decisions. Also, their reinterpretations of Clausewitz as an advocate for total war became the stereotype which most people then accepted as Clausewitzs thinking.

Most odiously, US Colonel Harry S. Summers, Jr. would later present to a post-Vietnam War audience Goltzs version of Clausewitz. In doing so, Summers reversed Clausewitzs position, which was that defense was stronger than attack, an argument against engaging in aggressive war. But Summers was collaborating with neoconservative Norman Podhoretz who shared Goltzs militarism.

These distortions of Clausewitzs principles and that of Americas Founders who even earlier had established the idea of civilian control over the military continue to the present day with US civilian policy makers now regularly deferring to the narrowly focused point of view of military leaders to the detriment of a sound national security strategy.

In Swords into Plowshares, Ron Paul offers a correction to this and a return to a civilian-directed national security strategy for the US to adopt which would restore a proper understanding of national interests and would be consistent with Clausewitzs own strategic theory.

Peace as a Goal

Clausewitz would have heartily agreed with Ron Paul that Having peace as a goal is both a key component of sensible foreign policy and crucial to economic prosperity and equal protection of all peoples liberty.

Clausewitz would also have agreed with Paul that it is not sound national strategy when the result of having the most powerful military in history means to have Americans continue to die in a series of wars, the treasury is bare, and the US is the most hated nation in the world.

Clausewitz made his bones, so to speak, in fighting Napoleonic France which had a similar foreign policy in the early 1800s as the US has in the Twenty-first Century using warfare and other means to achieve regime change with the same negative results. France finally met its Waterloo (the original Waterloo coming to mean a decisive defeat) in 1815.

The question for the US isnt if it will reach its own Waterloo, but when. Military solutions to geopolitical problems will inevitably exhaust even the most powerful nation, depleting its resources and manpower. Only by reversing imperial overreach and achieving peace can a sustainable prosperity become possible.

Clausewitz fully understood that reality, which is why he was an advocate of diplomacy and of restoring peace as soon as costs exceeded the benefit of whatever political object the war was being fought over. Clausewitz would be aghast at arguments that a war must be continued to show resolve or other such nonsensical purposes.

An expert on Clausewitz, Michael Howard, wrote that Clausewitz was a scholar as well as a Field General and knew and respected the works of political philosopher Immanuel Kant. Accordingly, Clausewitz would no doubt have been aware of and influenced by Kants 1795 tract entitled Perpetual Peace. Pauls Swords Into Plowshares is in that tradition and applies the lessons to today.

Defense, Not Offense

In Clausewitzs time and place, he had to fight a war of national survival against Napoleon, who could be viewed as the predecessor of todays American neoconservative idea of using war as the means of imposing political change on other countries.

Clausewitz first fought France for his native country, Prussia, and when Prussia was defeated, he volunteered his services to Russia, serving until Napoleons final defeat. Clausewitz then began compiling what he had learned of statecraft and warfare with the experience he had gained.

But this was not for the purpose of encouraging aggressive war but only as recognition that war was used as a political tool which had to be addressed in a book of statecraft. Subordinating the political point of view to the military would be absurd, for it is policy that has created war, he wrote.

Ron Paul demonstrates a full understanding of that principle as he challenges the neoconservative euphoria for what they claim is now a perpetual war. But Paul does not write as a pacifist and Swords into Plowshares is not a pacifist tract.

As Paul writes, When a people are determined to defend their homeland, regardless of the size of the threat, they are quite capable. Americans can do the same if the unlikely need arises. That is not the voice of a pacifist but rather of one who has drawn the same lesson as Clausewitz had.

Clausewitz was surely not a pacifist either. His profession was the military. But he wasnt a militarist, unlike what the Prussian officer class would later become. Clausewitz would not have called for civilian control over military decision-making if he had been a militarist. That was a key point that von Moltke would later repudiate (or ignore) as he ushered in German militarism.

But the purpose of Clausewitzs profession as a soldier in the early 1800s in central Europe was to defend his native land, Prussia, against a foreign attacker. When he later joined with Russia to fight Napoleon, it was to fight a common enemy, France, which was not a prospective enemy but an actual foreign invader on their respective territories.

Along those lines, Ron Paul suggests that the US model its foreign policy after Switzerland, which has a military to defend itself but not one to wage offensive war outside its borders.

Switzerland has done rather well with its streak of independence, Paul writes. Reasonable fiscal and monetary policy, along with the rejection of foreign intervention, have been beneficial to her.

Perpetual War and Militarism

The only flaw in Clausewitzs view that civilian policymakers must prevail over the military is that Clausewitz did not foresee the development of hyper-militarism, or what was called Fascism in the last century. Under Fascism, a sufficiently large number of militaristic civilians took over policy in Germany and Japan in the 1930s, paving the way to World War II.

An analysis of militarism prepared for the U.S. Office of Strategic Services in 1942 by Hans Ernest Fried, entitled The Guilt of the German Army, describes three types of militarism which had developed in Germany. They were characterized as glorification of the army, glorification of war, and the militarization of civilian life. Frieds book is disturbing because it could be describing the United States of today with the prevalence of the same three features.

Clausewitz did not anticipate the rise of a civilian political class in the 1930s which was as narrowly militaristic in its attitudes as was the military, another pattern that is repeating itself in the United States of the Twenty-first Century. We are seeing the political dominance of neoconservatives and like-minded progressive interventionists who are eager to advocate war, often more so than the US military.

One reason for this reality is that many of these ideological advocates for perpetual war are far removed from the actual killing and dying, i.e., they are chicken hawks generally from privileged classes and dont even know many real soldiers.

These chicken hawks follow in the footsteps of former Vice President Dick Cheney whose physical safety was sheltered by five deferments from the draft but who still celebrated when other men of his generation were marched off to the Vietnam War. Cheney was again eager to send a new generation of men and women off to the strategically catastrophic Iraq War on the basis of lies that he and President George W. Bush spread.

A Wider Audience

Gaining an understanding of US foreign policy and American militarism by reading Swords into Plowshares is important for the future of the United States and should not be confined to Ron Pauls usual libertarian audience. Instead, it should be studied by those seeking to understand why it is that the more wars we fight and the more Muslims we kill, the more attraction groups like ISIS have.

ISIS and similar militant groups maintain their ability to recruit because they are resisting what they call US imperialism, a war against Islam. This appeal is even reaching into the US and Western Europe as the continuing bloodshed in the Middle East increases the anger and enmity of its victims and their sympathizers. Killing more Muslims does not resolve these hatreds, it exacerbates them, strengthening the political will to resist, as Clausewitz would have understood.

Similarly, Paul understands that US policy is a combat multiplier for groups like ISIS and Al Qaeda.

And, as if ISIS and Al Qaeda arent trouble enough, the US has now identified a new enemy, nuclear-armed Russia. Neoconservative militarists led by Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Victoria Nuland and her war enthusiast Kagan family in-laws have revived the Cold War through their nefarious machinations in Ukraine and elsewhere.

Furthermore, foolish US Generals such as NATO Commander Philip Breedlove, with a name and military policy suggesting he is a real-life character straight out of Dr. Strangelove, seems to be doing all in his power to create a hot war with Russia, even at the risk of a nuclear exchange.

But Paul explains that this incitement to perpetual war has been achieved without an actual threat to our security. We have not engaged in hostilities with any nation since 1945 that was capable of doing harm to us . . . . Our obsession with expanding our sphere of influence around the world was designed to promote an empire. It was never for true national security purposes. To keep hatred and thus war alive, the propagandists must stay active.

Resisting Interventions

Clausewitz would have understood Ron Pauls reasoning as expressed here: The more US interventions caused deaths, incited and multiplied our enemies, imposed extreme costs, and jeopardized our security, the greater my conviction became that all foreign intervention not related to our direct security should cease as quickly as possible. The neoconservatives want an open license to go anywhere, anytime to force our goodness on others, even though such actions are resented and the beneficiaries want no part of it.

Clausewitz not only theorized against interventions of that type; he helped defeat Napoleon, who practiced the Nineteenth Century equivalent. Knowing how Napoleons wars ended, Ron Paul sees the US as on the wrong side of history.

Paul, consciously or not, has drawn on the strategic insight of Clausewitz, which should be no surprise as it was a frequently expressed truism in the military before 2001, echoing Clausewitz, that wars were so expensive and unpredictable that they were to be avoided if possible. And if unavoidable, they were best kept short.

Cheney and other neocon hawks of the Bush-43 administration threw that wisdom overboard even before 2001. But 9/11 created so much hysteria in todays military officers, who never had to experience how wars can go sour, that those bitter lessons are being relearned the hard way by a new generation of officers. They would serve the military well by reading Swords into Plowshares and reacquiring that wisdom.

What might turn out to be the tragedy of this book is that its readers will be limited to self-identified libertarians. But Paul has shown himself capable of joining liberals such as Democrat Dennis Kucinich in opposing the transformation of the US into an advanced form of militaristic state and resisting the wars which make that possible.

But every attempt at forming antiwar coalitions between libertarians and other political groupings or even co-sponsored forums, in the experience of this writer, go no further than about five minutes before one side or the other insists that before militarism is discussed, the other side has to concede to their respective economics ideology. More times than not, that comes from the libertarians who insist that any taxation is as repressive as military rule. Its reminiscent of the early 1930s when the Nazis political opponents were happiest squabbling amongst themselves, while the Nazis were preparing Dachau and other prisons for members of each of the non-Nazi political parties.

Consequently, American militarists probably need not fear that Swords into Plowshares will interfere with their militaristic plans and war profiteers need have no concerns for their future profits. But perhaps my prognostication is incorrect. Maybe Americans will realize that our militarists are leading us to the strategic abyss and that were already close to the edge.

Americans should find that Pauls national security strategy is sound regardless of whether they agree with other aspects of his libertarian ideology. There is surely common ground among Americans who recognize that perpetual wars will also mean the suppression of constitutional rights and other encroachments on liberty.

Todd E. Pierce retired as a Major in the US Army Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps in November 2012. His most recent assignment was defense counsel in the Office of Chief Defense Counsel, Office of Military Commissions.

Reprinted with permission of the author from Consortium News.

Read more:
Ron Paul and Lost Lessons of War by Todd E. Pierce -- Antiwar.com

Jesse Benton, supporter and onetime adviser to Sen Rand Paul, is charged with paying Iowa lawmaker Kent Sorenson $70,000 to secure endorsement of senator's father Rep Ron Paul during 2012 presidential bid; accusation comes as latest blow to Rand Paul's struggling 2016 campaign. MORE

Sen Rand Paul, preparing to announce candidacy for 2016 Republican nomination, will seek to distance himself from legacy of his father Ron Paul, who had several unsuccessful presidential bids in past; elder Paul will likely have only minor role in campaign. MORE

Sen Rand Paul is adopting different strategy than his father, former Rep Ron Paul, as he prepares for his likely 2016 bid to be Republican nominee for president; Paul is trying to bridge gap between fervent supporters of his father's previous campaigns and with more mainstream elements of the Republican Party. MORE

Op-Ed article by Brian Doherty, senior editor at Reason magazine, examines state of libertarian wing of Republican Party, in light of Rep Ron Paul's retirement; assesses future and observes that Sen Rand Paul may not only be a standard-bearer for libertarians, but also for the Republican Party. MORE

Backers of Rep Ron Paul protest at the Republican National Convention what they say are moves by Republican leadership to squelch their movements rise; part of Maine's delegation walks out; protests signal deeper party divisions bubbling under the telegenic surface of Mitt Romney's nomination at the convention. MORE

Ron Paul exerts a strong presence on the eve of the Republican convention in Tampa, Fla, delivering a speech to nearly 10,000 eager supporters at a rally inside the University of South Florida's Sun Dome. MORE

Supporters of Rep Ron Paul, after a valedictory rally in Tampa, Fla, are eager to build on his electoral advances and youth support; Paul will not speak at the Republican National Convention, but his libertarian views found new attention in the Tea Party era and served as the focus of a determined grass-roots effort to shake up the Republican establishment. MORE

Mitt Romney's campaign extends an olive branch to the small army of Ron Paul delegates who will attend the Republican National Convention by scheduling a tribute video to Paul, even as it tries to make sure that such an insurgency does not arise in future campaigns. MORE

Rep Ron Paul's dedicated supporters are setting their sights down-ballot in an attempt to infiltrate the top echelons of the Republican Party, now that Paul has lost the 2012 presidential nomination; Republican Party officials say they are in daily contact with Paul, in a delicate effort to harness the energy around him without inciting his supporters. MORE

Strategists for Republican presidential candidate Rep Ron Paul are searching for answers as to why his strengths did not coalesce into a candidacy with a real shot at the GOP presidential nomination; not even Paul can entirely explain why the passion he generated in the primary season did not translate into more votes. MORE

Presidential candidates disclose their monthly campaign fund-raising for February 2012; Pres Obama raised $45 million, a big increase for the month; Mitt Romney raised $11.5 million, Rick Santorum raised more than $9 million and Ron Paul reports $3.3. million in contributions; Newt Gingrich has not yet released his report. MORE

Relationship between Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Ron Paul stands out for its behind-the-scenes civility, in a contest rife with angry rivalries. MORE

Interviews with Rep Ron Paul and scores of his relatives, friends and colleagues reveal that Paul's unusual political views were largely shaped by his early family life; Paul has held on to those views with unwavering fidelity, and they have directed not only his political career but also the way he lives his life (Series: The Long Run). MORE

Residents of a Nevada town in Nye County have little use for government regulations, be it permits, stop signs, gun regulations or anything that would threaten its brothels; it is the heart of Ron Paul country, the one county in Nevada that the 76-year-old congressman from Texas carried in the 2008 Republican caucuses, and a place that wears its libertarianism proudly. MORE

Surge of support for Ron Paul in Nevada since the 2008 election has revolutionized the state Republican Party; 25 percent of party members in Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, back Paul; trend showcases the candidate's long-term goal of changing the national party from within. MORE

Advisers to Ron Paul say they are in the 2012 presidential campaign to win, but they are also trying to leverage what they have to try to force the Republican Party to take his and his supporters views into account. MORE

Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul finishes a strong second in New Hampshire primary, which in many ways is the more telling outcome in a race where Mitt Romney's dominance was never in doubt; outcome seems to give Paul, often dismissed as a protest candidate, reason to extend his campaign. MORE

Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul makes his first campaign appearance in New Hampshire three days after the Iowa caucuses, prompting grumbling from some of his supporters and raising questions about whether he is serious about winning the primaries in the state. MORE

Charles M Blow Op-Ed column excoriates Republican presidential candidates Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul for once again using race to pander to the right; offers chart to debunk claims that blacks and other minorities participate in food stamps programs more than white Americans. MORE

Newt Gingrich, following fourth-place bruising in the Iowa caucuses, immediately begins fulfilling vow to take on Gov Mitt Romney and Rep Ron Paul more aggressively; anti-Gingrich ads aired by the Romney and Paul campaigns helped derail Gingrich's surge in the lead-up to the caucuses. MORE

Analysis; Mitt Romney's narrow win over Rick Santorum in the Iowa caucuses, with Rep Ron Paul placing a close third, ensures that Republican primary contests will be fought aggressively for additional weeks or months; caucuses illustrate how deep ideological divisions among Republicans continue to complicate their ability to focus wholly on defeating Pres Obama. MORE

Few Republican strategists expect Ron Paul to be elected president, but his third-place finish in the Iowa Republican caucuses shows that at the least he will be a force to be reckoned with in the primaries, and in GOP politics. MORE

Outcome of the Iowa caucuses, curious political ritual that is about to open yet another race for the White House, will set a tone for the race after a yearlong prelude that has been off the charts in its unpredictability; Republican candidates enter a final day of frenzied campaigning, with top runners Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Rep Ron Paul rushing to claim victory as the contest then moves to New Hampshire. MORE

Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Ron Paul, Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry, on last day of campaigning before the caucuses, implore Iowans to turn out for them. MORE

Republican presidential candidates are making final appeals to Iowa voters as caucus draws near; volatility of race is underscored by latest Des Moines Register poll showing Mitt Romney and Ron Paul essentially tied for the lead with Rick Santorum gaining momentum close behind. MORE

Ross Douthat Op-Ed column examines Rep Ron Paul's presidential campaign and the basis of his appeal; asserts that in this unprecedented era of American failure, it sometimes takes a fearless crank to expose realities that neither Republicans nor Democrats are particularly eager to acknowledge. MORE

Representative Ron Paul of Texas, during campaign events in Iowa, assails critics of his opposition to United States military involvement abroad, saying he fears an overreaction to worries about Irans nuclear program could lead to war. MORE

Many of the Republican presidential candidates indicate that they hold expansive views about the scope of executive powers they would wield if elected, even as they advocate for limited government; only Ron Paul argues for more limited presidential power, while Rick Perry, Jon M Huntsman Jr, Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney see the commander in chief as having the authority to lawfully take extraordinary actions if he decides doing so is necessary to protect national security. MORE

Mitt Romney's presidential campaign signals that it will campaign aggressively in Iowa, a state that spurned him in 2008, just as polls are suggesting a surge by Rep Ron Paul. MORE

Rep Ron Paul's relatively dovish stance on foreign policy raises the question of whether his views are so far out of the Republican orthodoxy that they will limit his support in many places. MORE

Rep Ron Paul's presidential campaign has issued strict orders to its young volunteer supporters in Iowa to look and behave in a way that will not jeopardize Paul's chances; the orders seem to be a recognition of the fact that while the hundreds of volunteers from out-of-state may be Paul's most potent weapon, there is the possibility that they may rub Iowa voters the wrong way. MORE

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney criticizes Ron Paul's approach to foreign policy as polls show both men are in the lead in Iowa; as caucus grows near, all six contenders search for ways to win voters' support across the state. MORE

Republican presidential candidates are in a final push to win over undecided voters in Iowa as the caucuses prepare to open; most are sharpening their criticism of Ron Paul, hoping to keep his support from growing among voters who might consider a vote for a Paul as a message of frustration to Washington. MORE

Editorial urges Ron Paul to release a full and detailed account of his role in the offensive and discriminatory newsletters published in the 1980s and 1990s under his name and to completely disavow his racist supporters in order to clear his discredited presidential campaign. MORE

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul's popularity among far-right fringe groups, many of them discriminatory, has begun to attract scrutiny as he surges in election polls; although Paul has stated that he does not agree with the racist and bigoted opinions held by some groups of supporters, he has not disavowed their support. MORE

Newt Gingrich sharply criticizes Republican opponent Ron Paul for the discriminatory statements made about blacks and gays in newsletters attributed to the Texas congressman, as controversy over the inflammatory remarks continue to dog Paul's presidential campaign. MORE

Conservative publication The Weekly Standard reprises reports of incendiary and discriminatory language used in Republican presidential candidate Rep Ron Paul's newsletters; focus on his newsletters comes as Paul's standing quickly improves in primary polling. MORE

Ron Paul's built-in networks of loyal backers established during his 2008 presidential bid have given the Republican candidate a decisive organizational advantage in 2012 election; analysts say years of groundwork are an important reason that some polls show Paul within striking distance of victory in the Iowa caucuses; Paul's backers are diverse, ranging from college students enthusiastic about his antiwar stance to conservative populists who are suspicious of Wall Street. MORE

Paul Krugman Op-Ed column asserts that Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul's hard-money doctrine and paranoia about inflation have come to dominate the Republican Party's views on the economy; argues that this economic doctrine, like Paul, has been remarkably consistent, clear and wrong. MORE

Gail Collins Op-Ed column on the writings and musings of Ron Paul, libertarian congressman from Texas who now seems to have an outside chance of winning the Iowa caucus vote. MORE

Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul's campaign is picking up momentum in Iowa, as two polls show he is in a statistical tie for first place; many credit his growing popularity to his ability to organize and mobilize niche voters, along with help from grass roots organizations and heavy advertising. MORE

Ron Paul's right eyebrow visibly droops during televised Republican presidential candidate debate, causing many to speculate that he is wearing false eyebrows, a claim that his campaign spokesman vehemently denies. MORE

There are no additional abstracts to display.

Read more:
Ron Paul News - The New York Times

Ron Paul, an eleven-term congressman from Texas, is the leading advocate of freedom in our nation's capital. He has devoted his political career to the defense of individual liberty, sound money, and a non-interventionist foreign policy. Judge Andrew Napolitano calls him "the Thomas Jefferson of our day."After serving as a flight surgeon in the U.S. Air Force in the 1960s, Dr. Paul moved to Texas to begin a civilian medical practice, delivering over four thousand babies in his career as an obstetrician. He served in Congress from 1976 to 1984, and again from 1996 to the present. He and Carol Paul, his wife of fifty-one years, have five children, eighteen grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.Ron Paul, the New York Post once wrote, is a politician who "cannot be bought by special interests.""There are few people in public life who, through thick and thin, rain or shine, stick to their principles," added a congressional colleague. "Ron Paul is one of those few."

Read more here:
Amazon.com: Ron Paul: Books, Biography, Blog, Audiobooks, Kindle

The headlines neatly tell the story. "Ron Pauls Passive-Aggressive Campaign Against Rand Paul."Rand Paul Has a Daddy Issue." "Like Father, Like Son? Not Exactly."Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has endeavored so much to distinguish his "libertarian-ish" views from his father's "voluntarist" politics that any snark from the paterfamilias generates a story. He'll joke that he's still looking at who to endorse; it will be reported like Saturn devouring his offspring.

There will be no snark this weekend. As Rand Paul heads out of the country for a medical mission to Haiti, Ron Paul will make a print and e-mail pitch to donors. It is his first such email on Rand Paul's behalf since the April 7 start of his presidential bid.

"I know the media likes to play this little game where they pit us, or certain views, against each other," the elder Paul will write, according to excerpts provided by the younger Paul's campaign. "Don't fall for it. They're trying to manufacture story lines at liberty's expense. You've spent years seeing how the media treated me. They aren't my friends and they aren't yours."

In the e-mail, Ron Paul will say that the enemies of liberty "fear Rand more than any other candidate," and that "unlike other candidates, Rand isn't depending on Wall Street fat-cats and banksters who want more special treatment, bailouts and stimulus packages to bankroll his candidacy."

The "banksters" language is a mainstay of Ron Paul's own fundraising appeals, which rollout of his Campaign for Liberty as frequently as CDs used to roll out of Columbia House (R.I.P.). It can be read as a knock on, well, anyone else; the libertarian reader might think first of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), whose fundraising has lapped Paul's with the help of hedge funds.

Cruz's campaign has already been trying to pull support from Paul, taking advantage of a polling slump that some libertarians blame -- ironically -- on the candidate's attempts to broaden his appeal. Ron Paul's letter addresses this directly.

"There is not one candidate who has run for president in my lifetime who can say they fully share my commitment to liberty, Austrian economics, small government, and following the Constitution, than my son, Rand Paul," writes Ron Paul.

Read the original:
Ron Paul (finally) sends out a donor pitch for Rand - The ...