[/caption]
While Arabs throughout the MENA region are taking to the streets to demand control over their own destinies, Texas Representative Ron Paul and his supporters in America are fomenting their own revolution, a revolution in foreign policy.
President Obama had it right when he reached out to the Arab and Muslim communities in his famous Cairo speech in the summer of 2009, appearing to signify the start of a new relationship and at the same time, rejecting the legacy of Bush II.
An exceedingly important move on the part of the Obama administration, two and a half years later, the president and his men have failed to make those words a reality. Instead, Obama has given a pretty face to America, while continuing to implement a rotten foreign policy.
Enter Ron Paul: “If we want to change the world for the positive, what we need to do is change ourselves, set an example, and let them emulate us when we get our house in order.”
Rep. Paul has been saying for years what many living in the Middle East have also been saying for years: Mind your own business.
The Congressman’s voting record on issues of foreign policy has been consistently non-interventionist and anti-imperialist. He openly identifies the US as an empire and one that is on its way out due to excessive overspending. He advocates the withdrawal of all US troops from foreign lands, the halting of all foreign aid, including the $3 plus billion a year to Israel, and he advocates international relationships based on mutual respect, free trade, diplomacy and ease of movement.
An anonymous Muslim supporter of Paul wrote in 2007: Till now Muslims and Americans have not had an American Presidential candidate that really suited their best interests.
Paul also understands the simple principle of cause and effect. In Paul’s words: If you hit someone and kill their family, they will hate you and probably hit you back in the future. And so it goes on.
One indication that Paul might be on the right path, in foreign policy at least, is that his Republican rivals either openly dismiss or entirely ignore his “radical” ideas in this area.
In fact, he has been excluded from several public debates, suggesting that more than anything Paul is seen as a direct threat, likely to Republicans’ hawkish policies abroad for their special interests at home.
Will Paul be the GOP’s Republican candidate for president?
By most accounts, probably not. And that’s okay.
What is important is that he and his supporters have managed to clear the way for a more honest debate on the woes of US foreign policy and its inherent opposition to the US national interest.
It’s a clear-cut argument, and one that resonates with all who have been affected by US imperialism.
To the Muslim and Arab worlds: Ron Paul is indeed an American after your own heart.
