imported post
44Brent wrote:
His take on the situation is that it was our fault the Muslim murderers attacked us. That we deserved it.
Greg, can you provide his exact statement from a transcript?
What Greg is saying is not true. Here is what Ron Paul said, word for word, taken from the Republican debate: "Have you ever read about the reasons they attacked us? They attack us because we’ve been over there. We’ve been bombing Iraq for 10 years". After Guliani finished thumping his chest, Ron Paul went on to say “I’m suggesting that we listen to the people who attacked us and the reasons they did it. They are already delighted that we’re over there, because Osama bin Laden has said, ‘I am glad that you’re on our sand, because I can target you so much easier'. Ron Paul is NOT saying that we deserved to be attacked. What he IS saying is that our foreign policy was the reason. It's not the American people, it's our foreign policy.
Osama bin Laden said in his 1996 fatwa (declaration of holy war) that America should be attacked because we "occupied the land of the two Holy places." and that "the occupying American enemy is the principle and the main cause of the situation". The Muslim fundamentalists don't hate us because we have nice houses and our women wear bikinis, they hate us because we have put them under economic sanctions for over ten years, starving thousands. They hate us because we supply Israel, their sworn enemy, with weapons, billions of dollars, and other federal aid. Most of all, they hate us because we have soldiers occupying their holy lands. Invading Iraq and Afghanistan just adds fuel to the fire, and every Iraqi that we kill, torture, or imprison without trial just turns their family members against us.
Also remember this - We were attacked on September 11th, supposedly by 19 "fundamentalist Islamist terrorists". 15 of the 19 supposed hijackers were from Saudi Arabia. The person that we're told is the mastermind, Osama bin Laden, was believed to be in Pakistan. So what do we do? We invade Iraq! That makes no sense at all.
Also keep in mind that our government put Saddam Hussein in power in the first place. The United States supplied the Ba'ath Party with funds and arms so that they could overthrow the Iraqi government, which they successfully did. Our government was threatened by the Ayatollah Khomeini, and we wanted Iraq/Hussein to take care of the problem, so we gave him the means to attack and remove Khomeini.
The simple fact is that every time we meddle in the Middle East, we dig ourselves deeper in a hole. We supply countries with money and arms when we think it will suit our interests, then we supply their neighbors and enemies with arms when they get too strong. THAT is why virtually the entire Middle East (except Israel) hates America. Ron Paul is right.
