Ron Paul Would Divide America

By now, most of my regular readers have a fairly good impression of my opinion of GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul. It can be summed up in one word.

Paul's perfidious performance at last week's debate in New Hampshire was another example of a dangerous mindset that undermines our nation's resolve to be united and ultimately victorious in war.

During a question on Iraq Mike Huckabee referenced Congressman Paul:

Transcript of the Fox News Republican Presidential Candidates Debate
New York Times
September 5, 2007

MR. HUCKABEE..."[W]hether or not we should have gone to Iraq is a discussion that historians can have, but we’re there. We bought it because we broke it. We’ve got a responsibility to the honor of this country and to the honor of every man and woman who has served in Iraq and ever served in our military to not leave them with anything less than the honor that they deserve. (Cheers, applause.)

MR. HUME: Go ahead. You wanted to respond? He just addressed you; you go ahead and respond. (Continued applause.)

REP. PAUL: The American people didn’t go in. A few people advising this administration, a small number of people called the neoconservative hijacked our foreign policy. They’re responsible, not the American people. They’re not responsible. We shouldn’t punish them. (Cheers, applause.)

MR. HUCKABEE: Congressman, we are one nation. We can’t be divided. We have to be one nation under God. That means if we make a mistake, we make it as a single country, the United States of America, not the divided states of America. (Cheers.)

The Huckabee campaign posted a video of this exchange on You Tube. In it you capture the drama of the moment.

Surely Congressman Paul recalls that both Houses of the U.S. Congress voted in 2002 to authorize the President to use force in Iraq. The roll call votes in both the House (296-133)and Senate (77-23) include members of both political parties, even critics like Congressman Jack Murtha (D-PA) and Democrats running for President in 2008 (Biden, Clinton, Edwards) and 2004 candidate John Kerry.

The Iraq authorization for war was made on a truly bipartisan basis and represented the clear will of the American people as expressed through the democratic process for representative government.

Three years before the outbreak of the U.S. Civil War, Abraham Lincoln warned that "A house divided cannot stand" (full speech here). Disunity breeds weakness and invites conflict as we learned all too painfully during that war which cost over 600,000 American lives.

Disunity also emboldens and enables an enemy. Each of us has the right to disagree with decisions taken, even collectively by our government. We might object to tax increases for wasteful federal programs or ill-advised social legislation. But when it comes to war, with American men and women in combat, you can't say "not in my name." You are an American. And as along as you live under the Stars and Stripes you owe an obligation to the nation which created and protects your freedom to do all you can to support victory in whatever mission the U.S. military is directed by the Congress and the President to undertake.

Anything less than that and you don't deserve to benefit from the freedom won by others let alone run for President!