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In the post-9/11 era, most politicians of both the left and the right bought into the notion that we needed massive increases in the size and scope of government to protect us from terrorism. Ron Paul was one of the few voices of sanity who questioned that premise, and took issue with our foreign policy, particularly in the Middle East.
He called into question our military adventurism which fueled massive destabilization and civil wars in Iraq and Syria, he demonstrated that the “War on Terror” was a pretext for advocates of big government, and he has questioned such relationships as the Saudi-US military alliance, whereby the US government funds one of the world’s biggest abusers of human rights as they wreak humanitarian havoc in Yemen.
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But in a recent piece written for the Ron Paul Institute, entitled “Is North Korea Really a ‘State Sponsor of Terrorism’ “, Dr. Paul reveals the trepidation with which many view the perspective of non-interventionists and isolationists.
Specifically, Paul notes that the decision to return North Korea to that list involves Kim Jong-Un’s assassination of his own brother at the Kuala Lumpur Airport; he then proceeds to contrast this to the use of a drone strike to kill Yemeni-American cleric and terrorist propagandist Anwar al-Awlkaki, suggesting that these are moral equivalents.
Paul treads on thin ice here; Kim Jong-Un’s agents are acting to perpetuate what is arguably the world’s most unjust and brutal nation state today. Obama, in authorizing the strike, was acting to protect American life and liberty from further terrorist attacks.
Paul also castigates the Trump administration for using sanctions and taking a hardline approach with the North Korean regime, suggesting such an approach is counterproductive. Paul clearly has no love lost for Kim Jong-Un and his murderous regime, but he may be taking his line of thinking too far here.
There are clearly situations in geopolitical affairs which merit force. The North Korean regime is clearly mulling attacks on the United States and our allies in the region Japan and South Korea. Diplomacy is of little value to a regime as utterly depraved as theirs. They must know that should they ever take the ill-advised to decision to attack the US or an American ally, that they will be leveled to the ground.
