Politicians use fear to justify wars, Paul says

GOP candidate calls for troop withdrawal

by Margot Sanger-Katz - Oct 8, 2007

Rep. Ron Paul believes political leaders are pumping up the threat of terrorism to accomplish political goals. Paul, the 10-term Texas congressman, told Monitor reporters and editors that concerns about the country's security have been overblown to justify needless foreign invasions and domestic surveillance programs.

"It scares the living daylights out of me that they would do that, to talk about perpetual war," he said, dismissing the contention that Islamic terrorism is a grave threat that will face the country for a generation or longer. "All that is, they have to have an enemy."

Paul, who is running for the Republican nomination for president, said he sees a clear path for making the country safer while protecting individual liberties. That vision is in keeping with the ideals he reads in the U.S. Constitution: small federal government, broad protections of individual liberties and a hands-off foreign policy that achieves peace through trade and cooperation.

That reading informs the views that have made the former obstetrician a phenomenon on the campaign trail. As the only Republican presidential candidate calling for the complete and immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq, Paul has repeatedly challenged his rivals' assertion that continuing the war will make Americans safer.

Paul said he believes that terrorism is fueled by U.S. policy abroad. Occupation, he said, leads to the type of desperation and hostility that cause people to choose suicide attacks.

"As long as we occupy Muslims' countries, our danger is always growing," he said. "So, I think we're in a much more dangerous time now than we were before 9/11 because instead of wising up, what we've done is more of the wrong thing."

The Cuban missile crisis of 1962, where the U.S. faced a tangible military threat, was resolved peacefully, he said. Currently, the U.S. faces no threat as dire, Paul said, yet turns readily to military solutions.

He said fears about terrorism have contributed to declining safety, destabilized the federal budget, and have led to domestic policies that he sees as violating the Constitution. Paul opposes warrantless surveillance, national identification cards and other antiterrorism measures that he considers violations of privacy.

"Today, the federal government spends most of its time protecting government secrecy and violating personal privacy, and we were supposed to do the opposite," he said.

In Paul's estimation, the last hundred years have seen the country move increasingly away from constitutional precepts. The federal government has grown, along with the notion that the government can solve the country's foreign and domestic problems through intervention, an idea that Paul sees as wrongheaded.

Paul believes the U.S. should remove troops stationed abroad, not just in Iraq but in Korea, Afghanistan and other nations, eliminate federal agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service and the Social Security Administration, and work to sever political alliances with foreign nations. He believes the country should decriminalize most drugs, slash the size of the military and return the country's currency to the gold standard.

A smaller government would allow individuals and states to solve problems more creatively. In areas like education and medical care, Paul would prefer to see approaches that use the market and individual choice rather than federal regulation. Government control only stunts creativity and encourages mismanagement, he said, pointing to the Washington, D.C., public school system and the federal response to Hurricane Katrina as examples of how federal approaches can result in costly failures.

A smaller government is also necessary, he said, to head off imminent economic collapse. Paul sees the country's current budget deficits as unsustainable and predicts a monetary crisis soon if the country does not change course.

Paul ran for president in 1988 on the Libertarian ticket, but he said his ideas are embedded in a long Republican tradition. Though he disagrees sharply with his Republican rivals for the nomination on a variety of issues, he describes himself as the "real fiscal conservative," with a foreign policy perspective similar to that of President Bush when Bush first ran.

"I'm a Robert Taft Republican - I'm from the old right - where he believed in civil liberties and he believed in nonintervention overseas," Paul said. "What is amazing is that they can take a person like me and make me sound like I'm not a Republican."

Paul said that he's been surprised and heartened by the enthusiasm of young supporters, who have turned out in straw polls, spread his message in internet chat groups and who have harnessed significant fundraising capabilities, though they have not yet made a strong impression in national opinion polls. Paul's third-quarter fundraising total, reported last week, was $5 million, on par with Arizona Sen. John McCain, a Republican, and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democrat.

But he sounded an uncertain note when asked how he could convert that energy into votes.

"We get criticized so much because we're not going to enough states. Everybody wants me to come, and the problem is I'm just flat out too lazy. I tell them . . . can't I just talk to them on the internet?"