Ron Paul, America’s most outspoken libertarian and anti-mainstream politician, has slammed US military strikes in Syria and Iraq.
Not known for mincing his words or flip-flopping, Paul told RT’s Abby Martin that President Obama’s decision to use military force in Iraq and Syria against the Islamic State [IS], without approval from the UN or the US Congress, was “immoral and illegal” under US and international law.
READ MORE: Ron Paul: Imperial presidency, abuse of presidential powers have grown since Nixon
The “whole mess that we’ve been involved in in the Middle
East has been technically illegal because we’ve initiated war,
but we haven’t declared war,” Paul told Abby Martin in RT’s
“Breaking the Set” show.
“I consider what’s going on now, specifically in these last
few weeks, totally immoral,” Paul said. “I think it’s
illegal under our laws and illegal under international law as
well.”
The 12-term Senator from Texas criticized Obama since he pledged to “wind down these wars” yet the military expansion continues to ramp up “massively” in Iraq and Syria.
On Obama’s recent comment to the UN General Assembly that the
only way to deal “with killers like this is with the language
of force,” Paul replied that airstrikes would only cultivate
more violence, not eliminate it.
“We have to do a little bit more than just address the
violence that is occurring, and forward the question: ‘Why is
there violence?’” Paul said.
People in the Middle East are clearly tired of American meddling
and “everything we do there increases the violence,” he
said.
Instead, people there should handle their own problems, the
senator said.
“If we had such a situation going on in our country, we would
deal with it, and I think the people there should deal with
it,” he said. “Why should someone from 6,000 miles away,
who’s been stirring this pot for so long, be the group that’s
going to bring everyone together and organize the fight?”
Paul also ventured to suggest that “maybe Israel might even
want to help out” in forming some sort of regional coalition
to fight IS. He added that Israel, which gets $3 billion in aid
annually from the US and has the Middle East’s most modern air
force, was "too dependent" on Washington getting
involved in the region – and that this was “very harmful to
Israel.”
“If they were less dependent on us, I think there would be
more natural coalitions built… and they would work with their
neighbors a little bit better.”
Obama’s administration is moving toward preemptive strikes
against potential enemies, and has changed the definition of
“imminent” to mean terrorists are “imminently
plotting to do something against somebody, anyplace in the
world,” giving the US a pretext for military intervention,
Paul said.
The three-time presidential candidate also said “war propaganda” was heating up in the US again in a pitch to sell the latest war.
“A year ago, we were able to put pressure on the president
not to go into Syria, but all of a sudden, after a lot of clamor,
public opinion has shifted,” he said.
But Paul insisted: “The American people are not looking for
another war, and hopefully our voices can be heard.”