It seems a bit more prosecutorial than is Tim Russert’s normal style, but that’s to be expected.
MR. RUSSERT: Under President Paul, if North Korea invaded South Korea, would we respond?
REP. PAUL: I don’t–why should we unless the Congress declared war? I mean, why are we there? Could–South Korea, they’re begging and pleading to unify their country, and we get in their way. They want to build bridges and go back and forth. Vietnam, we left under the worst of circumstances. The country is unified. They have become Westernized. We trade with them. Their president comes here. And Korea, we stayed there and look at the mess. I mean, the problem still exists, and it’s drained trillion dollars over these last, you know, 50 years. So stop–we can’t afford it anymore. We’re going bankrupt. All empires end because the countries go bankrupt, and the, and the currency crashes. That’s what happening. And we need to come out of this sensibly rather than waiting for a financial crisis.
MR. RUSSERT: So if Iran invaded Israel, what do we do?
REP. PAUL: Well, they’re not going to. That is like saying “Iran is about to invade Mars.” I mean, they have nothing. They don’t have an army or navy or air force. And Israelis have 300 nuclear weapons. Nobody would touch them.
I’m always amused by people who worry about Iran attacking Israel. They have clearly never read Jane’s and have no idea about the comparative size and construction of the two militaries. It’s rather like worrying about 19th century India invading England based on the former’s greater population.
If you want to worry about someone attacking Israel, worry about Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Of course, if they ever do, they’ll be doing it with arms provided to them by the USA.