Home > Work > Swords into Plowshares: A Life in Wartime and a Future of Peace and Prosperity
41 " George W. Bush is the epitome of a candidate who does not follow his own pronouncements with regard to foreign policy once he becomes president. In the first Bush-Gore debate on October 3, 2000, Bush was eloquent, but grossly misleading, when he said, “…if we don’t stop extending our troops all around the world in nation building missions, then we’re going to have a serious problem coming down the road, and I’m going to prevent that.” Bush also declared during the debate: “I don’t want to be the world’s policeman. I want to be the world’s peacemaker…. "
― Ron Paul , Swords into Plowshares: A Life in Wartime and a Future of Peace and Prosperity
42 " September 11, 2001 turned out to be that “Pearl Harbor event” the neoconservatives were hoping for in order to prepare the American people to support the foreign policy for which the neocons longed. "
43 " We also hear of internet corporations cooperating readily in mass surveillance and receiving payments for turning over information to the government. "
44 " Altogether there are about 22 million government busybodies meddling in the lives of Americans. "
45 " Paul O’Neill, Bush’s first secretary of the treasury, revealed that at the very first National Security Council meeting the subject of attacking Iraq was on the agenda for discussion. O’Neill lasted in the administration until December of 2002 when he was fired for disagreeing with Bush on the Iraq War and for expressing the danger of the large deficits. "
46 " The Bush Doctrine was created to justify ongoing and future interventions on the basis of America’s “moral” responsibility since becoming the only superpower left standing. More succinctly, the Bush Doctrine is about pursuing a world empire. "
47 " This Bush Doctrine stands today and is assumed by President Obama to be legitimate as he carries out a secret drone war worldwide with no congressional input or oversight. "
48 " It stretches credulity to try to explain away our inconsistencies in working with al-Qaeda in Egypt, Libya, and Syria while being diligently at war with the same group. Pursuing these contradictory policies makes no sense. "
49 " Even today, authors who claim correctly, as Patrick Buchanan does in his book Churchill, Hitler, and the Unnecessary War, that both World War I and World War II were “unnecessary wars” are shunned and ridiculed. Such a suggestion is so at odds with how history is taught in most US schools that many people are unwilling to even consider arguments backing Buchanan’s conclusion. "
50 " The Bush Doctrine defends the US killing a supposed enemy 6,000 miles away who has never attacked and cannot attack America. Those who struggle and sacrifice to expel foreign invaders from their homeland are the monsters that must be stopped according to the logic of Presidents Bush and Obama, who take their cues from the neoconservatives. "
51 " No time back then or since has there been much discussion of the significance of Roosevelt’s executive order on July 26, 1941 that froze all Japanese assets in the US. This occurred four months before Pearl Harbor. It essentially created an oil embargo on the Japanese. Such sanctions are a deeply flawed policy that we continue to use today, to our detriment. "
52 " Today both the Democratic and Republican parties support the expansive US Empire as well as the neoconservatives’ agitation for a perpetual Global War on Terror. The disagreement we hear between the two parties is only regarding management style and is designed to use political failures and unintended consequences to enhance the power and influence of one party relative to the other. "
53 " Neoconservatives have written about “getting lucky” with a “Pearl Harbor event.” Michael Ledeen wrote for example in his 1999 book Machiavelli on Modern Leadership: “Of course, we can always get lucky. Stunning events from outside can providently awaken the enterprise from its growing torpor, and demonstrate the need for renewal, as the devastating Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 so effectively aroused the United States from its soothing dreams of permanent neutrality….” Then the 9/11 attack aroused war fever against Muslims and Arabs in the Middle East. This is precisely the reason that “false flags” are popular tools for those who see war as noble and heroic in their effort to promote an agenda that is never noble but always self-serving. And there’s nothing heroic about chickenhawks, of which there are many. "
54 " Press reporters being spied on, the Benghazi cover-up, use of the IRS to punish political enemies, surveillance of all Americans under the authority of the PATRIOT Act, and the secret FISA court rulings to mention a few. "
55 " Obama, through Attorney General Eric Holder, rejuvenated the Espionage Act, using it more than any president since Wilson. On seven occasions the Obama administration has used the Espionage Act to charge government officials for leaks to the media. It has also used the law to justify seizing emails and phone records of Associated Press and Fox News reporters. "
56 " Preemptive or preventive war is now accepted by both political parties. It is also accepted by all branches of our government. Likewise, assassinations, secret military tribunals, and torture are now identified worldwide as policies acceptable to the US government and the American people. The image of the US throughout the world, and especially in the Middle East, is more negative now than at any time in our nation’s history. Many Americans have at the same time exhibited a general willingness to give up liberty for safety. We have ignored the warnings of the Founders that the loss of liberty leads to the loss of security as well. "
57 " The majority of the American people opposed military action against Syria in the latter half of 2013. Still, there is much tolerance of our constant smaller wars as many people just pretend the wars don’t exist. There’s no real endorsement, but also no real objection. "
58 " To decrease the frequency and magnitude of war, those who are conditioned to die in them or pay for them are the ones who must decide they will neither support the wars nor be victimized by them. "
59 " Drone warfare is more sterile. It’s neat—no infantry involvement and thus fewer American casualties. Staring one’s victims in their eyes as they die is discomforting. Thinking about casualties is unsettling. Many people, with other pressing concerns, find it best to slip into denial. Capital punishment to make it more tolerable is a medical IV to put the criminal to “sleep.” No more public square hangings, firing squads, or guillotines. Certainly no one wants to witness collateral damage while “terrorists” defend their homeland from invaders from faraway places. Who wants to be tormented by seeing children and women die at funerals and weddings at our hands? Closing one’s eyes to the destruction is easier than dealing with the reality of “preemptive” war and its ugly consequences. "
60 " It is often believed that, as long as we’re the economic powerhouse of the world and have a huge military advantage, we can control the world by “owning” international organizations like the United Nations, NATO, the IMF, and the World Bank. These international organizations may also be used as a means to get around congressional oversight and restrictions that Congress and the people might prefer. To a degree, that control has been achieved. But now that the US is the largest debtor nation in the world and in all history, the days of military and economic supremacy are numbered, as are the days of dollar hegemony. "