Campaign Statements — Ron Paul

Monday January 16, 2012

“Don’t give up on our American judicial system so easily, I beg of you.”

“I think we are going in the wrong direction for the protection of our liberties here at home. They are under deep threat. The PATRIOT Act has eliminated the fourth amendment. We now have a policy of preemptive war, you don’t have to declare war and you don’t even have to have an enemy. We can start the wars, that’s what preemptive war is all about.

Now with the military appropriations defense act, this is major. This says that the military can arrest an American citizen for under suspicion, and he can be held indefinitely, without habeas corpus, and be denied a lawyer indefinitely even in a prison here.

Let me give you one statistic. You’re worrying about all these—all these—where we’re going to try people, where are they going to do it, we have to do it secretly, because our rule of law is so flawed. We have arrested 362 people related to Al Qaeda-type operation; 260 of them are in prison. They’ve been tried and convicted. So don’t give up on our American judicial system so easily, I beg of you.”

CATEGORIES: Civil Liberties | Ron Paul | War on Terror |

Monday January 16, 2012

“The Taliban used to be our allies.”

“The Taliban used to be our allies when we were fighting the Russians. So Taliban are people who want—their main goal is to keep foreigners off their land. It’s the al Qaeda, you can’t mix the two. The al Qaeda want to come here to kill us. The Taliban just says we don’t want foreigners. We need to understand that, or we can’t resolve this problem in the Middle East. We are going to spend a lot of lives and a lot of money for a long time to come.”

CATEGORIES: Afghanistan | Ron Paul | War on Terror |

Monday January 16, 2012

“We need to save the money and bring our troops home.”

“This idea that we can’t debate foreign policy, then all we have to do is start another war? I mean, it’s—it’s warmongering. They’re building up for another war against Iran, and people can’t wait to get in another war. This country doesn’t need another war. We need to quit the ones we’re in. We need to save the money and bring our troops home.”

CATEGORIES: Iran | Ron Paul | War on Terror |

Monday January 16, 2012

“Why didn’t we try to get some information from him?”

“...think about Saddam Hussein. We did that. We captured him. We tried him. I mean the government tried him and he got hung. What’s so terrible about this?
This whole idea that you can’t capture—just a minute. This whole idea you can’t capture people…Adolf Eichmann was captured. He was given a trial. What is wrong with capturing people? Why didn’t we try to get some information from [Osama bin Laden]? You know, we are accustomed to asking people questions, but all of a sudden gone, you know, that’s it. So I would say that there are different ways without trying to turn around and say, oh, for some reason this doesn’t mean he’s supporting America.”

CATEGORIES: Ron Paul | War on Terror |

Monday January 16, 2012

“We’re not leaving Afghanistan and the American people are sick and tired of it.”

“That’s what we have been doing in the Middle East, digging bigger and bigger holes for ourselves and it’s so hard for us to get out of that mess. And we have a long ways to go. We are still in Iraq and that’s getting worse and we are not leaving Afghanistan and the American people are sick and tired of it. 80 percent of the American people want us out of there. I am just suggesting that we work within the rule of law. Like only going to war when you declare the law, then we wouldn’t be…”

CATEGORIES: Afghanistan | Iraq | Ron Paul | War on Terror |

Monday January 16, 2012

“I’m trying to suggest…respect for another nation’s sovereignty.”

“Here we have a nation that we are becoming constantly trying to kill people who we consider our enemies. At the same time we are giving the government of Pakistan billions of dollars. Now there’s a civil war going on, the people are mad at us but yet the government is getting money from us and I think it’s a deeply flawed policy. But to not go after [Osama bin Laden]—and if I voted for the authority, obviously I think it was proper. But once they waited ten years, I don’t see any reason why they couldn’t have done it like they did after Khalid Sheikh Aman (ph). And that would have been a more proper way.

If somebody in this country, say a Chinese dissident come over here, we wouldn’t endorse the idea, well, they can come over here and bomb us and do whatever. I’m just trying to suggest that respect for other nation’s sovereignty—and look at the chaos in Pakistan now. We are at war in Pakistan, but to say that I didn’t want him killed…”

CATEGORIES: American Exceptionalism | Ron Paul | War on Terror |

Monday January 16, 2012

“There’s a difference between military spending and defense spending.”

“You don’t understand there’s a difference between military spending and defense spending. Just because you spend a billion dollars on an embassy in Baghdad, bigger than the Vatican, you consider that defense spending. I consider that waste.”

CATEGORIES: Iraq | Ron Paul | War on Terror |

Monday January 16, 2012

“A golden rule in foreign policy.”

“Maybe we ought to consider a golden rule in foreign policy. Don’t do to other nations what we don’t want have them do to us. We endlessly bomb these countries and then we wonder why they get upset with us.”

CATEGORIES: Ron Paul | War on Terror |

Saturday January 07, 2012

“One of my heroes is Martin Luther King.”

“More importantly, you ought to ask me what my relationship is for racial relationships. And one of my heroes is Martin Luther King because he practiced the libertarian principle of peaceful resistance and peaceful civil disobedience, as did Rosa Parks did.”

CATEGORIES: Ron Paul |