Ron Paul Speech - Ron Paul
Imagine -
By Congressman Ron Paul
March 9, 2009

Imagine
for a moment that somewhere in the middle of Texas there was a large
foreign military base, say Chinese or Russian. Imagine that thousands
of armed foreign troops were constantly patrolling American streets in
military vehicles. Imagine they were here under the auspices of
“keeping us safe” or “promoting democracy” or “protecting their
strategic interests.”

Imagine that they operated outside of US
law, and that the Constitution did not apply to them. Imagine that
every now and then they made mistakes or acted on bad information and
accidentally killed or terrorized innocent Americans, including women
and children, most of the time with little to no repercussions or
consequences. Imagine that they set up check points on our soil and
routinely searched and ransacked entire neighborhoods of homes. Imagine
if Americans were fearful of these foreign troops, and overwhelmingly
thought America would be better off without their presence.

Imagine
if some Americans were so angry about them being in Texas that they
actually joined together to fight them off, in defense of our soil and
sovereignty, because leadership in government refused or were unable to
do so. Imagine that those Americans were labeled terrorists or
insurgents for their defensive actions, and routinely killed, or
captured and tortured by the foreign troops on our land. Imagine that
the occupiers’ attitude was that if they just killed enough Americans,
the resistance would stop, but instead, for every American killed, ten
more would take up arms against them, resulting in perpetual bloodshed.
Imagine if most of the citizens of the foreign land also wanted these
troops to return home. Imagine if they elected a leader who promised to
bring them home and put an end to this horror.

Imagine if that leader changed his mind once he took office.

The
reality is that our military presence on foreign soil is as offensive
to the people that live there as armed Chinese troops would be if they
were stationed in Texas. We would not stand for it here, but we have
had a globe straddling empire and a very intrusive foreign policy for
decades that incites a lot of hatred and resentment towards us.

According
to our own CIA, our meddling in the Middle East was the prime
motivation for the horrific attacks on 9/11. But instead of
re-evaluating our foreign policy, we have simply escalated it. We had a
right to go after those responsible for 9/11, to be sure, but why do so
many Americans feel as if we have a right to a military presence in
some 160 countries when we wouldn’t stand for even one foreign base on
our soil, for any reason? These are not embassies, mind you, these are
military installations. The new administration is not materially
changing anything about this. Shuffling troops around and playing with
semantics does not accomplish the goals of the American people, who
simply want our men and women to come home. 50,000 troops left behind
in Iraq is not conducive to peace any more than 50,000 Russian soldiers
would be in the United States.

Shutting down military bases
and ceasing to deal with other nations with threats and violence is not
isolationism. It is the opposite. Opening ourselves up to friendship,
honest trade and diplomacy is the foreign policy of peace and
prosperity. It is the only foreign policy that will not bankrupt us in
short order, as our current actions most definitely will. I share the
disappointment of the American people in the foreign policy rhetoric
coming from the administration. The sad thing is, our foreign policy
WILL change eventually, as Rome’s did, when all budgetary and monetary
tricks to fund it are exhausted.