Ron Paul Stings Hillary Clinton on Iraq War, Warns of Draft

by Larry Fester - Oct 13, 2007

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul speaking at the Robert Taft Club in Arlington VA Thursday directed some of his firepower at his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

Sounding like a candidate that can win his party’s nomination, Paul said, “She voted for the war now she says she can’t get the troops out until 2013 and she won’t rule out a military first strike against Iran.”

Although his barb toward Clinton was in response to a question asked from the audience Paul’s challenge to Hillary Clinton is another sign of the candidate asserting himself in the top tier of Republican candidates.

Paul now stands fourth in the money race behind Giuliani, Romney, and Thompson. Paul’s campaign message also seems to be more in line with party principles and rank and file primary voters than the other front runners.

Paul spoke about foreign policy, the Constitution, and protecting civil liberties. He also spoke about the Federal Reserve.

They’ve “transferred illegally the power and responsibility of congress to the president. The real debate should have occurred before the war.” He said, “They’ve forgotten the constitution. They do not follow any principled, moral, or constitutional position”.

Paul talked about his warnings back in 2002 and although he didn’t support the war he had said, “If you want to go to war you should go to war properly. Declare it, win it, and get it over with”.

Paul had voted against the Iraq war while Hillary Clinton voted for it. Paul’s antiwar stance is the silver bullet that his supporters believe will cripple Hillary Clinton in a general election.

“Change foreign policy, reduce spending, give us a stronger defense.” Paul then pointed out that his “campaign gets more money from people in the military than all the other Republican campaigns put together. We need to “change our foreign policy and follow the law”. We need a peaceful foreign policy and have to respect liberty”

Ron Paul said our foreign policy encouraged nations to go nuclear, “If they threaten to get a nuke we bomb them, once they get one, we subsidize them”.

Paul warned “there’s a lot of behind the scene agitation for reviving the draft”. Ron Paul then hammered Selective Service, “Selective Service is the government saying it owns a group of people”. His harshest words, “The military draft of young people is a sign of a totalitarian government” Paul said.

“We financed each and every war through Federal Reserve financing”

Ron Paul challenged the Federal Reserves role in war, “Secretive financial scheme such as the Federal Reserve used to finance the military industrial complex.” He warned that it is costing “trillion dollars to maintain empire. Eventually empire catches up, we can not maintain empire”.

He explained why people on Wall Street don’t see a recession coming, “People in the military industrial complex and people in the medical industrial complex get the counterfeit money first”

This is causing “run away inflation and the destruction of currency”. Warning of an economic down turn, “I believe we are in early stages of a recession”

Paul said that he wouldn’t just abruptly change the Federal Reserve System. He said he’d “legalize competing currencies in gold and silver, that can be done in a very non disruptive way”.

The Federal Reserve was created in 1913 creating what some feel is a banking monopoly with the police power of the government to back it up.

“We’re taxed to blow up the bridges in Iraq, now we’re taxed to rebuild the bridges while ours are falling down”.

Speaking of what he perceives as an emerging police state, Paul said, “Greatest threat to us today is internally not externally. The domestic threat is gigantic”

Regarding the income tax he joked about people asking him, “What are you going to replace it with”? He replied “Nothing”!

Here too Paul said that he’d have compassion for people dependent on the system and wouldn’t be throwing people out in the street. He said that there’d be a gradual process of reducing government. He also said that reducing the cost of empire would free up money for domestic issues.

“We can always improve our past, we can improve ourselves. Central economic planning does not work Empty promises don’t work.” Every individual has this right to liberty.”

Sounding like a general election candidate Paul said, “Our crowds are diverse. Freedom unites. It’s not right wing or left wing it’s the humanitarian thing”.

“These ideas are reviving. People have a right to their life and their liberty”.

“The message is not delivered by the greatest orator but it is the greatest message ever”.

“It’s exciting what’s going on. The young people are so excited. I promise them nothing but freedom, our right to our life, our right to liberty.”

The crowds that attend his campaign rallies seem to indicate that the candidate’s message of peace, freedom and prosperity seems to be resonating and uniting people, not only in the Republican Party, but across the political spectrum.