Ron Paul: "Flawed" U.S. policies caused 9/11

after reading go to the link on the bottom and read comments. his ideas on foreign policy are nuts. he doesn't mention israel but he is saying that our presence in the mideast has created hatred of the US and israel. forget the fact that islam has attacked US interests before we ever had any troops in the mideast

Here he goes again. Ron Paul and Barack Obama agree that jihad terrorism is our fault, caused by our actions, and capable of being ended by something that we do. It never occurs to either of them how ethnocentric and condescending this is: they both assume that Muslims are just passive reactors to American enormities, not people who might be able to think for themselves and hate us for reasons of their own that are independent of what we do or don't do -- such as the doctrine of jihad. "Ron Paul: ‘Flawed’ US policies led to 9/11," by Justin Sink for [1] The Hill, November 20 (thanks to Wimpy):

Ron Paul said that American policymakers were at least partially at fault for the country being attacked on 9/11 during a discussion of foreign policy on CBS's Face the Nation Sunday.

Paul argued that the American military presence in Saudi Arabia - rather than ideological differences or anger over American prosperity - were motivation for the September 11 hijackers.

"Just remember that immediately after 9/11, we removed the base in Saudi Arabia, our policies definitely had an influence," Paul said. "To argue the case they want to do us harm because we're free and prosperous I think is a very dangerous notion, because it's not true."

Host Bob Schieffer then pressed Paul on whether that wasn't the equivalent of blaming America for the attacks.

"If you have a flawed policy, that may have influenced it… that's a far cry from blaming America," Paul responded.

"So what you're saying is that it was the government's fault," Schieffer then said.

"I'm saying the policymaker's fault," Paul responded. "[They] contributed to it, contributed to it."

Paul went on to say that if he became president, he would pull troops out of overseas bases, arguing that submarines and long-range missiles would work just as well as deterrents.

"Absolutely, and the people are with me on that, those troops oversees aggravate our enemies," Paul said....

Yes, indeed, just as American troops aggravated the Nazis in Europe in 1944 and 1945.

"I think the greatest danger for us now is to overreact… Iran doesn't have a bomb, there's no proof, and for us to overreact and talk about bombing Iran is much more dangerous," Paul said....
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2011/11/ron-paul-flawed-us-policies.html