In an opinion article published last week about President Obama's nominees for secretary of defense and CIA director, former Congressman Ron Paul suggests that Americans pay more attention to the policies than the personalities.
Ron Paul’s sound advice may not be echoing off the walls of Congress anymore, but he continues to share it in interviews and opinion articles.
The latest example of the latter was published January 15 on thedailybell.com. In his take on President Obama’s choices for secretary of defense and director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Dr. Paul suggests that Americans should pay more attention to the policies than to the personalities.
“There is widespread belief that either or both of these nominees will have an immediate and profound effect on US policy,” Paul says. “However, this belief is really just a mistaken over-emphasis on personnel over policy. We should not forget that cabinet secretaries serve the president, and not the other way around.”
Regarding the president’s tapping of former Senator Chuck Hagel to head the Defense Department, Paul warns those desiring an end to the “foreign policy of endless war and empire overseas” that Hagel’s nomination isn’t the signal many are interpreting it to be.
Paul explains:
Hagel has shown some admirable willingness to advise caution overseas. He is seen as unenthusiastic over the prospects of a US war on Iran, which is certainly to be welcomed. But let us not forget that he did vote for the war against Iraq, he has expressed support for multi-lateral sanctions on Iran, and last year he wrote in the Washington Post that, on Iran, he supports "keeping all options on the table, including the use of military force."
That said, Paul admits that even Hagel’s mild reticence to recklessly wasting American blood and treasure on perpetual foreign combat missions is enough to siphon the ire of neo-conservatives bent on using U.S. armed forces to make the world “safe for democracy.”
Click here to read the entire article.
Photo of Ron Paul: AP Images
