Ron Paul On Bush & Iraq

[Janett_Reno]

Tucker Carlson MSNBC

REP. RON PAUL(Republican), TEXAS: Thank you, nice to be with you.

CARLSON: Thanks. Before I ask you about those matters, we saw these FEC reports, including those from your campaign, and were amazed to learn that Barry Manilow has given to your campaign. I know last time on the air we talked about getting a celebrity supporter. It looks like we have. Do you know Barry Manilow?

PAUL: No, I do not. I was very pleased to find that out.

CARLSON: Are you a fan?

PAUL: I found out about the time you did.

CARLSON: Do you like his music?

PAUL: I really like it now, I will tell you that.

CARLSON: You are a fan of convenience, good for you. So we‘re learning what we already knew, which is that much of the threat we face from extremists abroad originates in the northwest territories of Pakistan, Waziristan. If you were president, what would you do about that?

PAUL: About dealing with al Qaeda in Pakistan?

CARLSON: Yes.

PAUL: Well, you‘re not going to deal with much until you change foreign policy. But I did vote for the authority to go after Osama bin Laden in that area and we sort of backed away. There‘s a problem there. Now it‘s compounded by the fact that al Qaeda now has an incentive for growth. We had no al Qaeda in Iraq, and now it is growing by leaps and bounds.

This idea that if we leave, al Qaeda will come in—exactly the opposite will occur. They weren‘t there until we went in. So, I think we should deal in a very, very targeted way to go after the leadership of al Qaeda and go after Osama bin Laden, and do it with as much permission as you can get, you know, from the governments involved, which is really Pakistan. But Pakistan doesn‘t permit us to do it.

Here we are sending them money. They‘re a military dictatorship, and they‘re protecting Osama bin Laden, which is a reflection of a foreign policy that is really flawed.

CARLSON: Why would we—if we faced an imminent physical threat, verifiable threat from elements within Pakistan and the Pakistani government declined to do anything about it, why wouldn‘t we just ignore their wishes and do something about it anyway?

PAUL: I think we have the right to do it if there‘s an imminent threat. But the odds of al Qaeda launching a nuclear weapon at us—the president does have that authority. Imminent threat or a threat, the president doesn‘t need permission from the Congress. He should get permission for a declaration of war and we would not be in this mess that we have.

But no, if it was an imminent threat, he does have the authority. But even in a targeted sense, you can get permission to get limited authority, like we did, to go after the al Qaeda. Unfortunately though, the president took this authority and got into nation-building. Now we‘re in the process of nation building in two countries over there. Neither one is going very well.

At the same time, we are threatening to go in and start bombing Iran. That is the kind policy that I think is so detrimental and dangerous to our country.

CARLSON: There has been great a great hesitance on the part of every president I am aware of in America to deal with regimes that are genuinely bad. The idea is we are above that. We are tainted by their evil if we make common cause with them. Are you bothered by that? Is there any regime that we should not deal with because they‘re morally repugnant?

PAUL: Well, basically, you try to avoid that attitude because you really want to talk to as many people as possible and trade with people. I mean, we dealt with the Chinese and that wasn‘t a bad idea. We trade with them now. And we are very much less likely now to have a war with China. So I would say you deal with these people.

We talk to the Russians, so why can‘t we talk to the Iranians. It makes a lot of sense to me that we should talk to them if we talk to these other regimes. It‘s this attitude that we should isolate ourselves from the world and just be belligerent and threaten them and put on sanctions. Right now, the more sanctions we put on, the more harm we do to the dissidents that are in Iran.

So I would say that always backfires. Yes, in general, you want to deal with people and talk to people as much as possible. If there is hostility going on, even then you talk to people to try to end that. Depending on force and war is the wrong way to go. That should not be the American way.

CARLSON: OK, Congressman Ron Paul of Texas, running for president and joining us again. I appreciate it, thanks Congressman.

PAUL: Thanks a lot.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19830436/