{"id":123329,"date":"2014-06-09T11:12:05","date_gmt":"2014-06-09T11:12:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=123329"},"modified":"2014-06-09T13:08:44","modified_gmt":"2014-06-09T13:08:44","slug":"ron-paul-obamas-foreign-policy-rhetoric-match-us-actions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/latest-news\/ron-paul-obamas-foreign-policy-rhetoric-match-us-actions\/","title":{"rendered":"Ron Paul: Obama\u2019s Foreign Policy Rhetoric Does Not Match US Actions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ron Paul<\/em><\/p>\n

President Obama\u2019s recent foreign policy speech, delivered at this year\u2019s West Point graduation ceremony, was a disappointment to anyone who hoped the president might be changing course.\u00a0The failure of each US intervention thus far in the 21st century might have inspired at least a bit of reflection.<\/p>\n

However, the president made it clear that interventionism and American exceptionalism would continue to guide his administration in its final two years. The president said, \u201cI believe in American exceptionalism with every fiber of my being,\u201d adding the dubious claim that \u201cbecause of American diplomacy and foreign assistance, as well as the sacrifices of our military \u2013 more people live under elected governments today than at any time in human history.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s funny he would mention elections. Last week the Syrians held their first multi-candidate presidential election in 50 years. Almost three-quarters of Syrian voters participated, giving President Assad 88 percent of the vote. After three years fighting a foreign-backed insurgency, voting conditions were not optimal. However, despite State Department claims to the contrary, it can no longer be stated that Assad enjoys no popularity in his country. Even former CIA chief Michael Hayden not long ago envisioned Assad winning a fair election in Syria.<\/p>\n

But the US government completely rejected the vote in Syria, with Secretary of State John Kerry calling it \u201ca great big zero,\u201d because, as he put it, \u201cyou can\u2019t have an election where millions of your people don\u2019t even have an ability to vote.\u201d<\/p>\n

That is just what happened last month in Ukraine, however, where the US-backed oligarch Petro Poroshenko won with just over 50 percent of the vote in an election where millions in the eastern part of the country did not have the ability to vote. That election, however, John Kerry declared a \u201cvictory for democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Similarly, John Kerry described the 2013 coup against the democratically-elected President Morsi in Egypt as a \u201creturn to democracy,\u201d while approving the election last month \u2014 with 96 percent of the vote \u2013 of the man who led that coup.<\/p>\n