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Ron Paul gives antiwar speech at Republican leadership conference

Congressman Ron Paul gave an antiwar speech at the conference on April 10, 2010, and then was voted second place (one vote behind first place) by the Republican activist attendees in the Presidential straw poll. Here is an excerpt of his speech:

"No matter how badly you would like to have them, all empires end, not because they're defeated militarily. All empires end for financial reasons and that is what the markets are telling us today.

"Besides, if you want a strong national defense, it should be designed for defense, not to support preventative wars and not to support wars that are undeclared. Don't you think it's rather conservative to say, 'Oh, it's good to follow the Constitution except for war! Let the Presidents go to war anytime they want!'.

"I would say that if you want go to war, only Congress can declare the war. Declare the war, know who the enemy is and go fight and win it and get out of there!

"And also, politically, it's much easier and it makes a lot more sense to cut the militarism and the bases overseas than it is to cut child welfare here at home. There's just so much room for that and I don't hesitate for a minute because I know we would be stronger for it."

"...Twenty years, the French and the Americans trying to tell the Vietnamese how to be westernized totally failed at a fantastic, horrible cost to us and now we have won more in peace than we have ever won in war because they're trading partners, we travel over there, their president comes over here, we can do better with peace than with war."

Click for text of speech.