Ron Paul on Iran Fighting ISIS: Is it Really a Problem?

Ron Paul’s Texas Straight Talk 3/16/15: Iran Fighting ISIS: Is it Really a Problem? – YouTube

Iran Fighting ISIS – Is it Really a Problem?
by Ron Paul

As
Iran continues to take an active role in helping Iraq fight ISIS, many
US neocons are upset that the US military is not over there on the
ground doing the fighting. They want Americans believe that only another
US invasion of Iraq – and of Syria as well – can defeat ISIS. But what
is wrong with the countries of the region getting together and deciding
to cooperate on a common problem?

While the entry of
Iranian-backed Shi’ite militias into ISIS-occupied areas may not be
ideal – there is bound to be revenge killings and sectarian fighting –
it is far more likely that the ISIS problem will be solved by the
countries in the region than by US bombs and ground troops. Our bombs
will continue to make the problem worse because it was our bombs that
helped create the problem in the first place. What the neocons who lied
us into the Iraq war don’t like to admit is that there was no ISIS
problem and no al-Qaeda problem in Iraq and Syria before we invaded
Iraq.

ISIS is an idea, not a country or an army, which is why
the US declaring war on ISIS makes no sense. It is clear that if we
really want to defeat ISIS, the last thing we should be doing is bombing
and sending troops back to Iraq and into Syria. Our bombs and
involvement in the region only serve to recruit more fighters into ISIS.
To make matters worse, many of these radicalized fighters come from
Europe and even the US. What happens when they go home?

What if
the US had not gotten involved with Iraq in 1990 when Saddam Hussein
went into Kuwait after getting what he thought was a green light from
the first Bush Administration? The interventionists were saying that if
we did not act, Saddam Hussein was going to take over the region and
perhaps more! But what about the other countries in the region that may
have felt threatened? Maybe Saudi Arabia would have made a move; maybe
Israel would have taken care of the problem. Why does it always have to
be the US?

The dedicated neocons and other interventionists will
not cheer Iran currently taking steps to defeat ISIS even though they
claim that ISIS is at this time the number one threat to the US. Why
don’t they like this good news? Because they desire the rest of the
world to believe that the US is the only indispensable nation. They want
the rest of the world – and especially the American taxpayer – to
believe that no problem anywhere can be solved without US involvement.

It
diminishes our prestige, they argue, for us not to take the lead in
every conflict everywhere on the globe. Perhaps if people overseas begin
to see that they can solve their own local and regional problems
without the US military involved, more Americans would come to see the
neocons as the real threat to our national – and financial – security.

Instead of being angered at Iranian help to address the problem of ISIS, perhaps we should send them a “thank you” note.