It was Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr., perhaps America’s greatest civil rights
leader and one of its most trusted moral compasses, who once spoke
out against America’s penchant for dictating the affairs of other
nations through military and other interventions.

“Don’t
let anybody make you think that God chose America as his divine,
messianic force to be a sort of policeman of the whole world…,”
he said in his landmark speech, ‘Why I am Opposed to the War in
Vietnam’ in 1967.

More than four
decades later, longtime Texas Congressman Ron Paul, 76, has gained
a loyal following, even among scores of youth voters, in large part
because of his own interpretation of that philosophy. Paul has gained
notoriety by cautioning against the consequences of the United States’
role as “policeman of the world” several times on the
Republican campaign circuit while emphasizing the need for military
spending and foreign aid cuts at a time when our money is needed
at home more than ever.

A return to
true diplomacy with the likes of Iran and other nations deemed to
be threats is the answer, the Air Force veteran Paul defiantly persists
as he has for years in Congressional hearings, not continued policies
of sanctions and interventions that cripple civilian populations
along with hostile rhetoric and condemnations that often only serve
as the pretext to more wars serving financial elites, part of the
‘Military Industrial Complex’ former president Dwight D. Eisenhower
warned against.

Despite these
noble stances, Paul is often cast aside by the mainstream media
and many staunch conservative voters in large part because of his
foreign policy positions.

The Arab
American News, however, sees Dr. Paul’s refreshing, forthright
foreign policy philosophy as one of his greatest strengths at a
time when the specter of a potentially catastrophic war looms over
festering, misunderstood and misreported conflicts in the Middle
East. His positions are perhaps the best hope for even a remotely
balanced policy in the troubled region that we’ve seen in decades.

Paul has also
been the only major Republican candidate to resist the type of anti-Arab,
anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant demonization, fear-mongering and pandering
to ultra-conservative voters in his party that has become pervasive
in the post-9/11 climate, despite continued studies showing that
terror threats posed by such groups have been greatly exaggerated
coming to light along with polls reaffirming the groupsÂ’ affinity
for American ideals and patriotism.

Speaking of
American ideals, Paul is the candidate with the most appreciation
for the Constitution in matters such as the requirement for Congress
to authorize war, the protection from illegal searches by the TSA,
which he believes is a rogue agency that should be abolished, and
the power and right of the government to issue its own currency
instead of relying on the private, interest-charging Federal Reserve
banking corporation.

Paul introduced
a bill to audit the Fed in 2009 and also has courageously fought
and spoke out against the nefarious National Defense Authorization
Act (NDAA), which was passed under the cover of near-secrecy from
the mainstream media on New Year’s Eve and authorizes the indefinite
detention of American citizens without trial. He introduced a bill
to repeal those provisions and has spoken out against other violations
of civil liberties such as the myriad proposed Internet censorship
bills and the extension of the PATRIOT Act, in line with the positions
of major civil rights organizations like the ACLU.

Other candidates
vying for the Republican Party nomination including Mitt Romney,
Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich continue to use the rallying cry
of “American exceptionalism” to score cheap political
points at debates that have been described by many as shallow, divisive
and at times cringe-worthy, all the while turning their backs on
the values of liberty and justice for all that made America so exceptional
in the first place.

In an interview
with The Arab American News this past November prior to a
debate about the economy at Oakland University, Paul reaffirmed
his positions on many of the above issues while reiterating his
plans to make significant, honest and much-needed cuts in military
overspending later that evening.

That’s not
to say there aren’t concerns surrounding Paul, ranging from his
age to the hypothetical difficulties of making major policy transitions
to the potentially Earth-shaking proposed eliminations of five government
departments including the Department of Education and Department
of Housing.

But Paul’s
consistent voice and unwavering commitment to restoring American
ideals at a time when telling the truth to power has indeed become
a revolutionary act makes him a voice worthy of our support in this
Tuesday’s Michigan primary election. With so few dynamic, true public
servants in Washington like Paul in this increasingly fascist era
of corporations-as-people, we must support those that remain with
all of our political fervor going forward.

On Tuesday,
February 28th we recommend that you give your vote to Ron Paul.

Reprinted
with permission from
The
Arab American News.

February
25, 2012

©
2012 The
Arab American News