Jan. 9, 2012
DURHAM, N.H. -- Ron Paul fielded a question on Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program during a town hall meeting at the University of New Hampshire on Friday.
"Well, it should scare us. All nuclear bombs scare me, and we've had way too many of them," Paul responded.
He recalled being drafted into the Air Force at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
"Compare that to the problem that we see, the potential problem with Iran maybe someday getting a nuclear weapon," Paul said. "The first thing is, the danger is way overblown about them having one in the near future. I think they would like to. I think that would be a concern, and don't want them to get one, but the IAEE, you know the U.N., says they have no evidence that they're on the verge of a nuclear weapon. Our own CIA says that."
Drawing upon more recent history, Paul made his case for a tempered Iran policy.
"So my greatest fear is that we will overreact, go in, and not have a good reason to go in, like we went into Iraq," he said. "Think of all the things that were stirred up about Iraq: nuclear weapons, weapons of mass destruction, al-Qaida, and all these things related to 9/11. None of it was true."
He also pointed to Cold War history for evidence that diplomacy can work.
"I felt very fortunate in that October 1962, because Kennedy at least had the wisdom to call up Krushchev and talk it, and they both agreed to move their missiles out," Paul remembered.
"I'm suggesting that more can be achieved without immediately resorting to violence," he said.
For Paul, the history of U.S.-Iran relations provides important lessons about the consequences of foreign intervention.
"They haven't forgotten 1953. We went into Iran and overthrew their government. Threw out an elected leader. They were practicing Democracy, but we didn't like him because he didn't want to give the oil benefits to the British and the Americans. He wanted to keep the benefits for the Iranians. So we overthrew him, Mosaddeq, and put in the Shaw, who was there for 26 years and he was a ruthless dictator," Paul reminded voters.
"What does that do? That starts and stimulates radicalism, and that's how radical Islam got going in Iran until you had the Mullahs take over in 1979," he said. "There's blowback. The use of force should be the very last thing you do."
The Texas Congressman went later expounded upon the religious origins of his foreign policy beliefs.
"I think there's nothing wrong with considering the Just War principles that have been around since Saint Augustine," Paul explained. "You fight war in defense and you do it proportionally. You do it after you talk to people and you do it to protect your own people."
"They're universal principles and I just try to follow those because I think the goal is peace. It isn't occupation," he concluded to applause.
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