Former congressman Ron Paul is refusing to curb his condemnation of the current White House’s foreign policy, blasting United States President Barack Obama further in a new op-ed concerning possible US intervention in Iraq.
An editorial published on Paul’s website on Sunday reiterates previously remarks made by the longtime lawmaker in recent days in which he’s spoken out against American interventionism, particularly with regards to rumors that the US military will soon take action in war-torn Iraq.
“The same foreign policy ‘experts’ who lied us into the Iraq [W]ar are now telling us we must re-invade Iraq to deal with the disaster caused by their invasion!” the three-time presidential hopeful exclaimed in an op-ed published on the Ron Paul Institute official site. “They cannot admit they were wrong about the invasion being a ‘cakewalk’ that would pay for itself, so they want to blame last week’s events on the 2011 US withdrawal from Iraq. But the trouble started with the 2003 invasion itself, not the 2011 troop withdrawal. Anyone who understands cause and effect should understand this,” he wrote.
“A big US government weapons transfer to Iraq will no doubt be favored by the US military-industrial complex, which stands to profit further from the Iraq meltdown,” he added. “This move will also be favored by those in Washington who realize how politically unpopular a third US invasion of Iraq would be at home, but who want to ‘do something’ in the face of the crisis. Shipping weapons may be an action short of war, but it usually leads to war. And as we have already seen in Iraq and Syria, very often these weapons fall into the hands of the Al-Qaeda we are supposed to be fighting!”
“Because of the government’s foolish policy of foreign interventionism, the US is faced with two equally stupid choices: either pour in resources to prop up an Iraqi government that is a close ally with Iran, or throw our support in with Al-Qaida in Iraq (as we have done in Syria). I say we must follow a third choice: ally with the American people and spend not one more dollar or one more life attempting to re-make the Middle East.”
“Haven’t we have already done enough damage?” Paul asked.
Sunday’s remarks come only days after Paul posted a video statement on another website tied to his name in which he blamed the 2003 US invasion of Iraq on creating the chaotic scene that has since crumbled in recent days due to escalating turmoil.
“There is an alternative to this,” he said in that statement.“We don’t have to continue to do the dumb things that have been done for so long. It’s time that we just rised up [sic], used good policy and came to our sense. So in that sense, there is always a chance that things will get much better. But I think the American people ought to realize how bad things are. How much worse they are, tragically, before we even went into Iraq.”
In the days since both statements, the White House has acknowledged that roughly 300 US troops will be sent to Iraq to guard the US embassy in Baghdad and other American interests.