Paul versus the "neocons"...

Perhaps we have a modern day David vs. Goliath, in the form of Ron Paul vs. the GOP.

Here is the text of a speech Ron Paul made yesterday in the United States House of Representatives.

No doubt, most "conservative" media heads will ignore it, or cast him aside with some buzz word like "isolationist" so that his opinion and the truths contained therein are lost in emotional, partisan rhetoric if ever heard at all.

Here are some of my favorite passages:

• Truly defensive wars never need a draft to recruit troops to fight.
• The early calls for patriotism and false claims generate initial support, but the people eventually tire.
• This early support, before the first costs are felt, is easily achieved. Since total victory may not come quickly, however, support by the people is gradually lost. When the war is questioned, the ill-conceived justifications for getting involved are reexamined and found to have been distorted. Frequently, the people discover they were lied to, so that politicians could gain support for a war that had nothing to do with national security.

  These discoveries and disenchantments come first to those directly exposed to danger in the front lines, where soldiers die or lose their limbs. Military families and friends bear the burden of grief, while the majority of citizens still hope the war will end or never affect them directly in any way. But as the casualties grow the message of suffering spreads, and questions remain unanswered concerning the real reason an offensive war was necessary in the first place.

It goes on from there, and clearly Rep. Paul has a firmer grasp on the psyche of the average American than does Rush Limbaugh or Karl Rove who think we are all mindless robots willing to bear unlimited burdens for the mere possibility of Iraqi "democracy".

Overall, Bush's war has turned out to be a failure, and the negative fallout appears to far outweigh some minor benefits that we may have made in the short term.

But as I've said for many months now, until our American homeland is secured from illegal entry at points both North and South, offensive wars in foreign lands cannot serve as preventitive actions vital to our national security strategy.