On Ron Paul's "Golden Rule" proposal for foreign policy, he's making one key mistake. The rule is meant to call for acting toward others the way that you as a reasonable and decent person would want to be treated. The problem is that we are dealing with an enemy which is neither reasonable nor decent. Essentially, he would have us say, "If we as a reasonable and decent nation/society/civilization were acting out as Shariah-pushing Jihadis out to establish the World Caliphate..." Now obviously there is a serious problem with the application Paul wants us to use. And where something is odd in the set-up, the application of a basic rule might also be odd.
-
Consider this closer-to-home--and honestly, more likely--scenario as an analogy (that means, it has a similar pattern that can illustrate a principle, so please, no one get drawn off on this issue as such or write back, "But, uhhhh, whad's dat got ta doo wit da war?"): By his argument, a rape victim should not plug his or her rapist with a 9mm automatic because the victim would not want to be so plugged. In that case, his application has the victim saying, "If I (a reasonable and decent person) was engaging in a rape..." Again, the same problem. But let's carry it through: "... what would I want the victim to do?" A reasonable and decent person--the only kind who would pay any heed to this general rule of morality--would have to answer as follows: "Well, I don't want the victim raped. I don't want anyone else raped. I must acknowledge that what I am doing--whatever the reason--is so wrong as to warrant any force necessary be used against me to stop me. I WANT TO BE STOPPED!" Such a person might go on to think, "And since I'm obviously so out of control and lacking in decency as to be this way, maybe I should be tortured into changing my ways, or simply destroyed."
-
And so, we have the answer: Applying the Golden Rule to the foreign policy situation would lead to the conclusion that we should basically bomb the pogies out of the entire Muslim world--or as George Washington said of the Barbary Pirate states (the Jihadis of his time): use our military power to "reform those enemies to mankind, or crush them into non-existence" ( http://www.teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=321 ).
-
Kinda reminds one of this PHOTOSHOPPED picture ("PhotoShopped" means it's not real, so don't start another false email I have to knock down):
-
So maybe Mr. Paul makes a point after all. Just not the point he, his libertarian-minded followers, or his fellow ZOG believers wanted to make.