Former US presidential candidate and House of Representatives member Ron Paul says people seeking to advance peace can learn much from looking to Switzerland.
Paul made his recommendation in an extensive interview with host Eric Dubin on Liberty Rising Radio focused on Paul’s new book Swords into Plowshares: A Life in Wartime and a Future of Peace and Prosperity.
Paul states in the interview that he likes Switzerland’s “very successful national defense,” and adds “there is no reason that we can’t use that as a starting point.” Paul explains:
… all through the twentieth century — a century of carnage and killing and murdering in the European theater especially, they were never invaded. So they had a strong national defense, but of course it was under a completely different philosophy than what most other countries have…. if we are seeking peace and prosperity, we ought to move in that direction.
Paul, who is the chairman of the Ron Paul Institute, explores the Swiss model in more detail in Swords into Plowshare, including providing this contrasting of the philosophies behind Swiss and US military and foreign policies:
Switzerland in the center of Europe survived unscathed during the 20th century carnage of two world wars — choosing a policy of neutrality. The US, in contrast, has constantly ignored the strong advice of our early leaders, and frequently the voice of the people, to stay out of the internal affairs of other nations and avoid entangling alliances. This combined with a supposed God-directed ‘Manifest Destiny,’ a neoconservative obsession with provoking wars, and an excessive spirit of nationalism and jingoism has led to our many wars throughout the world over the past 100 years.
The Swiss have not expressed this same attitude. Basically they stay at home while we march around the world looking for “monsters to destroy.”
Listen here to the complete interview, in which Paul addresses several other matters explored in detail his new book, including the role of propaganda in convincing people to support war, how President Woodrow Wilson helped move the US toward perpetual war, and the threat posed by US debt and currency debasement.
Order a copy of Swords into Plowshares here.
