| Imagine If Foreign Troops Occupied the United States 
By Rep. Ron Paul
Imagine
for a moment that somewhere in the middle of Texas there was a large foreign military
base, say Chinese or Russian. Imagine that thousands of armed foreign troops
were constantly patrolling American streets in military vehicles. Imagine they
were here under the auspices of "keeping us safe" or "promoting
democracy" or "protecting their strategic interests."
Imagine that they operated outside of US law, and
that the Constitution did not apply to them. Imagine that every now and then they
made mistakes or acted on bad information and accidentally killed or terrorized
innocent Americans, including women and children, most of the time with little
to no repercussions or consequences. Imagine that they set up check points on
our soil and routinely searched and ransacked entire neighborhoods of homes.
Imagine if Americans were fearful of these foreign troops, and overwhelmingly
thought America
would be better off without their presence.
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Imagine
if some Americans were so angry about them being in Texas that they actually joined together to
fight them off, in defense of our soil and sovereignty, because leadership in
government refused or were unable to do so. Imagine that those Americans were
labeled terrorists or insurgents for their defensive actions, and routinely
killed, or captured and tortured by the foreign troops on our land. Imagine
that the occupiers' attitude was that if they just killed enough Americans, the
resistance would stop, but instead, for every American killed, ten more would
take up arms against them, resulting in perpetual bloodshed. Imagine if most of
the citizens of the foreign land also wanted these troops to return home.
Imagine if they elected a leader who promised to bring them home and put an end
to this horror.
Imagine
if that leader changed his mind once he took office.
The
reality is that our military presence on foreign soil is as offensive to the
people that live there as armed Chinese troops would be if they were stationed
in Texas. We
would not stand for it here, but we have had a globe straddling empire and a
very intrusive foreign policy for decades that incites a lot of hatred and
resentment towards us.
According
to our own CIA, our meddling in the Middle East
was the prime motivation for the horrific attacks on 9/11. But instead of
re-evaluating our foreign policy, we have simply escalated it. We had a right
to go after those responsible for 9/11, to be sure, but why do so many
Americans feel as if we have a right to a military presence in some 160
countries when we wouldn't stand for even one foreign base on our soil, for any
reason? These are not embassies, mind you, these are military installations.
The new administration is not materially changing anything about this.
Shuffling troops around and playing with semantics does not accomplish the
goals of the American people, who simply want our men and women to come home.
50,000 troops left behind in Iraq
is not conducive to peace any more than 50,000 Russian soldiers would be in the
United States.
Shutting
down military bases and ceasing to deal with other nations with threats and
violence is not isolationism. It is the opposite. Opening ourselves up to
friendship, honest trade and diplomacy is the foreign policy of peace and
prosperity. It is the only foreign policy that will not bankrupt us in short
order, as our current actions most definitely will. I share the disappointment
of the American people in the foreign policy rhetoric coming from the
administration. The sad thing is, our foreign policy WILL change eventually, as
Rome's did,
when all budgetary and monetary tricks to fund it are exhausted.
RON PAUL is a Republican congressman from Texas.
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(Issue
# 1,
January 5 & 12, 2009)
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