[Peace-discuss] Antiwar Teaparty foreign policy

[C. G. Estabrook]

  [Better than most liberals are saying.  --CGE]

"I see tremendous opportunities for movements like the Tea Party to prosper by 
capitalizing on the Democrats' broken promises to overturn the George W. Bush 
administration's civil liberties abuses and end the disastrous wars in Iraq and 
Afghanistan."

      A Tea Party Foreign Policy
      BY RON PAUL | AUGUST 27, 2010

As one who is opposed to centralization, I am wary of attempts to turn a 
grassroots movement against big government like the Tea Party into an adjunct of 
the Republican Party. I find it even more worrisome when I see those who 
willingly participated in the most egregious excesses of the most recent 
Republican Congress push their way into leadership roles of this movement 
without batting an eye -- or changing their policies!

As many frustrated Americans who have joined the Tea Party realize, we cannot 
stand against big government at home while supporting it abroad. We cannot talk 
about fiscal responsibility while spending trillions on occupying and bullying 
the rest of the world. We cannot talk about the budget deficit and spiraling 
domestic spending without looking at the costs of maintaining an American empire 
of more than 700 military bases in more than 120 foreign countries. We cannot 
pat ourselves on the back for cutting a few thousand dollars from a nature 
preserve or an inner-city swimming pool at home while turning a blind eye to a 
Pentagon budget that nearly equals those of the rest of the world combined. 

Our foreign policy is based on an illusion: that we are actually paying for it. 
What we are doing is borrowing and printing money to maintain our presence 
overseas. Americans are seeing the cost of this irresponsible approach as their 
own communities crumble and our economic decline continues.

I see tremendous opportunities for movements like the Tea Party to prosper by 
capitalizing on the Democrats' broken promises to overturn the George W. Bush 
administration's civil liberties abuses and end the disastrous wars in Iraq and 
Afghanistan. A return to the traditional U.S. foreign policy of active private 
engagement but government noninterventionism is the only alternative that can 
restore our moral and fiscal health. I am optimistic, and our numbers are 
increasing!

Ron Paul is representative for the 14th Congressional District of Texas in the 
U.S. Congress.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/08/27/a_tea_party_foreign_policy