Decades of deeply misguided U.S. foreign policy

Refusing to know haunts and kills us

Excerpts, editing by Carolyn Bennett

Today, the Democracy Now program re-aired a clip of a foreign policy segment from last night’s political debate comments by by U.S. Representative Ron Paul. “We are under great threat,” Paul said, “because we occupy so many countries.

“We’re in 130 countries.

“We have 900 bases around the world.

“We’re going broke.

Major oil fields Britannica image

“The purpose of al-Qaeda was to attack us, invite us over there, where they can target us; and they have been doing it. They have more attacks against us and the American interests per month than have occurred in all the years before 9/11 but we are there, occupying their land.

“If we think that we can do that and not have retaliation, we’re kidding ourselves. We have to be honest with ourselves.

“What would we do if another country, say, China, did to us what we do to all those countries over there?

“This whole idea that the whole Muslim world is responsible for this and they’re attacking us because we’re free and prosperous — is just not true.

“Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda have been explicit. They have been explicit, and they wrote and said that we attacked—we attacked America because —

“You had bases on our holy land in Saudi Arabia,

“You do not give Palestinians a fair treatment, and

“You have been bombing—

“I didn’t say that. I’m trying to get you to understand what the motive was behind the bombing. “We had been bombing and killing hundreds of thousands of Iraqis for 10 years. Would you be annoyed?

“If you are not annoyed, then there’s some problem.”

Noam Chomsky commented live on the Democracy Now program. Paul’s comments, Chomsky said, are “uncontroversial.” You can read these facts in “government documents” and in history.

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“Maybe people don’t like to hear it, but … it goes back to the 1950s. … It was very much like what Eisenhower and the National Security Council were concerned about in the 1950s. There was a lot of antagonism to U.S. policy in the region [the Persian Gulf, the Middle East, North Africa] — partly, support of dictators blocking democracy and development, just as the National Security Council concluded in 1958…

“By 2001, there were much more specific things: among privileged Muslims … who kind of carry out, implement general U.S. economic and social policies in the region, [there was] very much anger about the U.S. backing for the Israeli occupation of the Occupied Territories, settlements, the bitter oppression of the Palestinians.

“Besides U.S. support of Israeli crimes, there were the sanctions against Iraq. This was 2001 [and] sanctions against Iraq were brutal and destructive.

“[These sanctions] killed hundreds of thousands of people. International diplomats who administered the Oil-for-Food program, distinguished international diplomats Denis Halliday and Hans von Sponeck in sequence — both of them resigned in protest because they regarded the sanctions as genocidal.

“They were carrying out a kind of a mass slaughter of Iraqis.

“They were strengthening Saddam Hussein.

“They were compelling the population to rely on him [Hussein] just for survival.

These were major crimes of the 1990s and privileged Muslims, “moneyed” Muslims in the Saudi Arabia and elsewhere, were bitterly opposed to this — not because they hate our freedom but because they don’t like murderous and brutal policies.”

Sources and notes 

“Noam Chomsky: Looking Back on 9/11 a Decade Later,” Democracy Now, September 13, 2011,

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/9/13/noam_chomsky_looking_back_on_9

PAUL

Ronald Ernest Paul (b. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1935) is a physician, author and politician. In the U.S. Congress, Paul represents a Texas congressional district (the 14th district, term: January 3, 1997 - ) comprising a area south and southwest of the Greater Houston region including Galveston. The congressional representative sits on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Joint Economic Committee, and the House Committee on Financial Services; and chairs the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy and Technology. He has an outspoken critic of U.S. foreign and monetary policy and is among the Republican candidates for the U.S. presidency.

Paul’s political party connections have been Republican (1976–1988); Libertarian (1988 Presidential Election); Republican (1988–present); his academic credentials include an undergraduate work from Gettysburg College (B.S.) and a medical degree taken at Duke University; his military service includes United States Air Force (1963–1965) United States Air National Guard (1965–1968).

Writings by Paul

“Indecency in the Media: Rating and Restricting Entertainment Content: Should the House Pass H.R. 3717, the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act?” (Fred Upton, Ron Paul, 2005, Washington, D.C.): Congressional Digest Corp. OCLC 81150568 (http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/81150568) .

“Compulsory National Service: 2006–2007 Policy Debate Topic: Should the All-Volunteer Force be Replaced by Universal, Mandatory National Service?” (Charles B. Rangel, Ron Paul, 2006, Bethesda, Maryland): Congressional Digest Corp. OCLC 84912971, (http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/84912971) .

A Foreign Policy of Freedom: Peace, Commerce, and Honest Friendship (Paul, Ron, 2007), Lake Jackson, Texas: Foundation for Rational Economics and Education, ISBN 0912453001. OCLC 145174995 (http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/145174995)

Pillars of Prosperity (Ron Paul, 2008), Auburn, Alabama: Ludwig von Mises Institute. ISBN 1933550244

Ron Paul Speaks (Ron Paul, Philip Haddad, Roger Marsh, 2008), Guilford, Connecticut: Lyons Press. ISBN 1599214482, OCLC 199459258 (http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/199459258) .

The Revolution: A Manifesto (Ron Paul, 2008), New York, NY: Grand Central Publishing. ISBN 0446537519. OCLC 191881970 (http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/191881970) .

End the Fed (Ron Paul, 2009), New York, NY: Grand Central Publishing, ISBN 9780446549196. OCLC 318878539 (http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/318878539)

Liberty Defined:50 Essential Issues That Affect Our Freedom (Ron Paul, 2011).,New York, NY: Grand Central Publishing. ISBN 9781455501458 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Paul]

CHOMSKY

Known for his critiques of U.S. foreign policy, ideologically identifying with anarchism and libertarian socialism, Avram Noam Chomsky (b. 1928) is a U.S. linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, activist, and an Institute Professor and Professor (Emeritus) of in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at MIT.

Described as a prominent cultural figure, Chomsky’s social criticism (co-written with Edward S. Herman) has included Manufacturing Consent: the Political Economy of the Mass Media (1988), an analysis articulating the propaganda model theory for examining the media. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noam_Chomsky]

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