Sen. McCain responded to Paul's comments moments later. "I've heard him now in many debates talking about bringing out troops home, and about the war in Iraq and how it's failed. "And I want to tell you," he said, facing Paul, "that kind of isolationism, sir, is what caused World War II...we allowed Hitler to come to power with that kind of attitude of isolationism and appeasement." McCain, who spent Thanksgiving in Iraq, told Paul that the troops' message was "let us win."OK: Hitler was bad, right? Why? He stuffed some people into ovens and launched wars."The real question you have to ask is why do I get the most money from active-duty officers -- military personnel," Paul responded. "I'm not an isolationist."
American "isolationism" --which is a pejorative term to describe the condition of the United States minding its own business and performing its assigned, lawful function-- did not cause people to get stuffed into ovens or wars to get launched. German legal mechanisms did.
Hitler might have been the nicest guy in the world. It makes no difference. The problem was the legal mechanisms that the man had access to. An evil, nefarious, diabolical man is just another street person if he doesn't have access to legal mechanisms. You put the DMV lady in charge of those kinds of legal mechanisms and the same thing would result. Power corrupts.
The problem was the legal mechanisms. The problem was the size of government. ...The precise ingredients to disaster that exist here in America, might I add.
(And are we finally over the whole Hitler marketing? It's one side effect of the "Israel did it" revelation: "I couldn't give a shit less what Hitler did to the Jews; I'm more concerned about what Israel did to America.")
I'm just asking for a little intellectual rigor around here. I know we're talking Americans, 2007. But still, we can make an effort.
