Here is Ron Paul, yet again, standing firm and pointing out what other politicians will not. On the house floor he strongly opposed the Foreign Relations Authorization Act and points out a few of the horrible provisions in the act, and what those provisions show our intentions are for the rest of the world. I’ll show the video first and then comment afterwards. Here’s the video:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nre2xonIWjc[/youtube]
This bill should be troubling to all of us because of the implications of the provision for a “Civilian Stabilization Initiative.” As the provision states, the initiative is to “facilitate democratic and political transitions” and to “reconstruct societies.” This is incredibly disturbing to me because what possible societies are there for us to reconstruct and transition? According to Obama (at least, during his compaign), we have mostly “transitioned” Iraq already: their security forces have been in training for years, they had an election which gave them a democratic government, etc. And President Obama said we could remove our troops within 18 months of his election, so we should be about wrapped up over there. Why would we need a permanent office for this initiative, using 5,000 people, to help with these transitions if there are no more? The only possible solution I can think of is that there are more wars and political take overs planned, the same way we did in Iraq.
If you will recall, Bush Jr. wasn’t the first to want to take out Saddam Hussein. The war cry to have him removed has been sounding for a long time and “regime change” actually became the official policy of the U.S. for Iraq during the Clinton administration. It never happened during Clinton’s presidency, but 9/11 gave us the excuse to finally go over there and remove him from power.
I’m glad Ron Paul pointed out that this initiative started during the last administration and that we are now only continuing it. As this post is trying to point out, our foreign policy has not changed from one administration to the next, and these current moves only prove that there are no plans to change it in the future.
This continuity of policy leads me to question: if one administration to the next, our policies stay the same, no matter the rhetoric of the president currently in power, whose policy is it? Democrats and Republicans may say they are opposed, but when their policies and actions give us more of the same, one administration after another, there’s a noticeable agenda being pushed. Whose agenda is it? Perhaps there is something to what John F. Kennedy spoke of, when he mentioned a “monolithic and ruthless conspiracy” that has built up “a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific and political operations.”
Whether you understand or believe there are people that might have a hidden agenda, this initiative should bother you. It shows are intent to continue nation building around the world and to continue to promote “democracy” by the use of force. If not by force, how else do you bring about “political transitions” and “reconstruct societies” if something doesn’t first overthrow the political powers and destroy the societies?
Lastly, one more question I have is: what right do we have to transition other countries to a democracy? The attitudes of those in power that believe we have a right to impose a form of government, no matter how much better we believe it is, shows all the hallmarks of an empire. In the name of spreading democracy, we are destroying countries, and killing thousands of innocent people. The death toll of Iraqis is over 1 million. If we keep up this foreign policy, we will have more enemies around the world than we can dream of and be even less safe than we are now.
I don’t know who said this quote, but it’s at the beginning of a song I have, and it pretty much sums up the absurdity of “spreading democracy”:
One question you got to ask loud and clear is a simple question. That question is: if democracy is as good as we tell you it is, then why in the [heck] are we running all over the world trying to ram it down people’s throats?
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