RPI Chairman and Founder Ron Paul, in a US News and World Reports article Friday, succinctly addresses what the United States government should do in response to insurgents gaining greater control over parts of Iraq in the last few days. Contrary to the popular Washington, DC interventionist mindset that says the US government should aid one side or the other (or even both sides) in every conflict around the world, Paul says the US should just stay out of it.
Paul concludes:
We have a choice: Should we work real hard to preserve a government [in Iraq] that may become a very, very close ally with Iran, or should we throw our support with al-Qaida, which we have done in the past? I don’t want to pick between the two.
Paul also presents an interesting comparison between the situation in Iraq and the 1968 Tet Offensive in Vietnam. Paul says:
It reminds me little bit of the Tet Offensive in Vietnam – it was such a surprise, they thought the war was over and the Tet Offensive showed they were so strong that they struck all the cities, and they lost every battle, but they ended up winning the war. But [in Iraq] they’re winning the battles, so that’s an ominous sign and for our national security’s sake we should just get out of there.
Read the article here.
Also watch Dr. Paul’s related commentary on Iraq developments — appropriately titled “American Foreign Policy is ‘Ridiculous'”— on his Ron Paul Channel, here.
