Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Ron Paul Is Not My Candidate

Prof. Bainbridge explains why Ron Paul is not his candidate.

Let me explain why he is not mine.

It is my belief we are in a 1936 type situation.

We can either smack down the Islamofascists now or let the whole situation deteriorate into a nuclear world war. Yes. They are pipsqueaks. Do we wish to do nothing while they gather strength?

BTW I voted for Paul in ‘88 so I am not unaware of his charms.

I was a hard core Libertarian until 9/11 (Secty/Treas.of the local club for 3 years). My study of history and military science/art in the previous 15 years and the attacks changed my world view.

So I guess the Islamic nutters got their blow back in my case.

Ron thinks if we left the rest of the world to its own devices we would have less trouble in the world. It would reduce blowback.

Blowback is a fact of life because there is no way to know what the perfect policy is in any situation. All you can do is to do what seems to be a good idea at the time. i.e. solve the current problem. It is called muddling through.

The fall of the USSR has lead to the rise of Islamism. Just as the fall of Germany in ‘45 lead to the rise of the USSR.

There is no perfect policy. There is only the best policy for now.

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Ron Paul wants some other country protecting our lines of supply and trade. He wants some other country stationing troops around the world maintaining the peace. I wonder who he has in mind? China? An Islamic caliphate?

No mater what age, the reigning world power always is reviled and always attracts rivals.

Egypt, Rome, The English, and many others. It is part of the job.

The successful power always guards the lines of communication, maintains peace among rival smaller powers, and promotes trade. When it stops doing that it falls.

Decline and Fall
Desolation Row

H/T Instapundit

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

The difficulty is the cost. I'd be interested in your thoughts on how to fund our empire without becoming a third world country ourselves.

M. Simon said...

We start selling these:

Bussard Fusion Reactor

Anonymous said...

Msimon said..
I was a hard core Libertarian until 9/11 (Secty/Treas.of the local club for 3 years). My study of history and military science/art in the previous 15 years and the attacks changed my world view.

Hey Sun Tzu, try to tear yourself away from that copy of "Art of War" and join the real world for a few precious minutes.

Sell Bussard Reactors? I have a much better idea. Let's blast those Islamofascists with an equally well proven Hafnium Bomb. Of course if those little 1kT nuggets fail to work as DARPA advertises for some odd reason, we could always ship them complimentary jugs of radium water to sterilize those rats! Problem solved!

James said...

Intrigued by this comment:
"I was a hard-core Libertarian"

What are you now? Some of us hard-core libertarians don't like capitalizing the L - could it be that Party Politics is the trouble with being identified as a Libertarian, or is there a preferable world view? :P

M. Simon said...

I am a libertarian leaning Republican.

I could never be a Libertarian again. I am willing to compromise my principles in order to move incrementally in the libertarian direction.

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Chat,

Pardon me for being nice by promoting something you were interested in. I promise to never make that mistake again.

You college boys are all alike. No class.