Guest Column: Joe Sansone
Apparently Ron Paul is the only candidate that understands the Art of War.
Leaving aside the motivation for terrorist attacks against the U.S., let’s consider the foreign policy issue purely from a strategic point of view for the moment. Is the current strategy of endless war in the strategic interests of The United States?
To answer that question, those that support the current U.S. foreign policy must first answer another question. Do you support genocide? Genocide may be the only way to make the planet safe from Islamic Jihadists, if the current policy is continued. And yet, another question must be answered, do you support the creation of a global police state? These are serious questions and not meant as flippant remarks. There does not appear to be another plausible end game for the current policy of U.S. engagement in the Islamic world.
Assuming those that seek to continue the Bush/Obama foreign policy dismiss the above and feel that this threat can be dealt with militarily, a closer look at their strategy is needed.
The Islamic terrorist threat is asymmetrical, and we are meeting it with conventional means. Aware of this, shortly after 911, Ron Paul put forth legislation issuing a Letter of Marque and Reprisal. It would have authorized the Government to target and assassinate Bin Laden via private assassins. It would have saved time, money, and lives. Congress rejected that idea, and sought war, undeclared, though it was nonetheless.
Unfortunately, the pro war crowd can’t afford their war and are going hat in hand to borrow from China to fund it. In essence, we are trying to kill a cockroach with a tank that was purchased with no money down and high interest payments to Communist China. In turn, China is using the proceeds to upgrade their space program and modernize their military. Most have heard the near cliché line from Sun Tzu’s ‘The Art of War’, that to win without fighting, is best. It does come to mind here.
Also coming to mind is Sun Tzu’s premise that a prolonged war in the enemy’s territory proves more futile as time goes on. Your resources get depleted and the enemy gets emboldened over time. That is precisely what Bin Laden said his goal was. He sought to ensnare the U.S. in a prolonged engagement in the Mideast in an effort to destroy our economy and radicalize Islam in his favor. When predator drones kill little kids in places like Pakistan, I’m guessing that many of the survivors say ‘never again’.
Key to the strategy being used by Al Qaida is this concept of using the resources of the West against itself. While with one hand they are guiding the U.S. into bankruptcy and using the West to radicalize their peoples, the other hand is invisibly giving rise to a Soviet/NAZI style police state within the United States.
The foolish wars have not only bankrupted the U.S. but they have eroded the liberty of Americans at an alarming rate. The sunshine patriots within the GOP in either their lust for Islamic blood or naivety, say the war on terrorism is to keep us free, and we are hated for our freedoms.
Yet, many of them still strangely support the other Republican presidential candidates. All of the other candidates running for president oppose the fourth amendment to the United States Constitution and support the unconstitutional Patriot Act. All the other GOP candidates support the DHS and the TSA with their naked body scanners and agents reaching their hands down peoples’ pants just to travel in the U.S.
Clearly, the terrorists have won if the anti liberty trend in the U.S. isn’t reversed.
The only logical approach to the threat of Islamic terrorism appears to be one of reasonable containment, coupled with friendly engagement when possible, and a more restrictive immigration policy from that part of the world.
It seems that the best way to defeat Islamic totalitarianism is to restore liberty in America. A Ron Paul presidency would have a true domino effect around the globe and cause revolutions everywhere. Not CIA generated revolutions, but, revolutions that occur organically from spreading the message of liberty. Freedom is a popular idea, and it will win out in the end, here, and abroad.
People that are supporting the current foreign policy, are, in fact, supporting Bin Laden’s strategy to bring down the U.S. And those Republicans and Democrats that continue their war on liberty do so while walking on thin ice. The blowback is going to be huge when it happens
In John Stevens translation of the founder of Aikido’s writings and saying, Morihei Ueshiba is quoted in this classic counterpoint to the ‘Art of War’ called ‘The Art of Peace’, as saying, ‘Your Spirit is Your True Shield.’
It seems that Dr. Paul believes that spirit exists, courageously, in liberty.
Joe Sansone is the author of Obama in Wonderland