re: If Ron paul would have ran as a Republican and won the primary

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Saudi Arabia laughs at this proposition. Iran may be the leading supporter of terrorism who is not a US ally.

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Look who is being ignorant now.

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Further, Iran is the successor to the Persian Empire and the most important state in the region.

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Right, so their power and influence, and support of world wide terrorism, upon the Ayatollahs taking over, is pretty much in your face.

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Hardly. As the articles I linked point out, Saddam was a counterbalance to Iranian interest in the region and kept Iran in check. Once we removed that check, it allowed Iran to wield much greater influence. The Bush Doctrine has been a colossal failure in nearly every regard and our foreign policy in the Middle East since 1953 has caused more problems than we've solved.

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See above. Saddam wasn't a counterbalance to jack shite. By your own admission, Iran is the most important state in the region, and became the Godfather fomenting and exporting terrorism for 24 years, with Saddam riding high in Iraq.

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Once we removed that check, it allowed Iran to wield much greater influence.

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They were already established as the mac daddy. Did their influence increase? Sure. But they were already running shite. Why is this so hard for you?

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The Bush Doctrine has been a colossal failure in nearly every regard and our foreign policy in the Middle East since 1953 has caused more problems than we've solved.

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Won't dispute that, but I will say that I believe that our oil based economy requires us to maintain a presence in the ME, even if it is at the cost of lives. The pussified way we go about that now, dishonors the lives and sacrifice of our citizens and soldiers. As I said before, my method would be much more brutal, indiscriminant, and effective. You can add permanent to that.