Ron Paul Defends Anti-War Stance: America is Provoking, Not Preventing War

Is America preventing or provoking war in Iran? The common stance among the GOP candidates is that Iran is a nuclear threat and that without intervention by the US an attack on American soil is inevitable. Ron Paul, however, says that the biggest threat is America’s overreaction to rumors, which may provoke war.

Paul’s views aren’t popular with his fellow candidates. Michele Bachman said that she felt “threatened” by Paul’s views on foreign policy. Bachman said:

“With all due respect to Ron Paul, I think I have never heard a more dangerous answer for American security than the one that we just heard from Ron Paul… We know without a shadow of a doubt that Iran will take a nuclear weapon, they will use it to wipe our ally Israel off the face of the map and they stated they will use it against the United States of America.”

But Paul wonders why Iran would want to attack America? Do they want to attack America because we’re free and prosperous? Paul said:

“To declare war on 1.2 billion Muslims and say all Muslims are the same, this is dangerous talk. Yeah, there are some radicals. But they don’t come here to kill us because we’re free and prosperous. Do they go to Switzerland and Sweden? That is absurd… The CIA has explained it to us. It said they come here and they want to do us harm because we are bombing them.”

Paul also said that foreign wars are making America bankrupt. Paul added:

“Why do we have 900 bases in 130 countries and we’re totally bankrupt. How do you rebuild a military when we have no money? How are we going to take care of the people? I think this wild goal to have another war in the name of defense is the dangerous thing. The danger is really us overreacting. We need a strong national defense. And we need to only go to war with a declaration of war and carelessly flubbing it and starting these wars so often.”

Reuters reports that many of Paul’s views were booed by the audience and scoffed at by his fellow candidates. According to Politico, Fox News host Sean Hannity was also dismissive of Paul’s ideas about Iran. In an interview with Michele Bachman, Hannity said “position on Iran scares me.”

Paul’s spokesman Gary Howard said that the debate shouldn’t hurt Paul’s numbers because people are already well aware of his views. Howard said:

“People know his views, and he’s polling top three. His support is solid. He doesn’t lose votes once he’s got them.”

What do you think of Ron Paul’s view on Iran? Is America preventing or provoking war?