Founder of Prominent Libertarian Group Says Ron Paul is Wrong

Alexander McCobin, one of the five co-founders of Students for Liberty, a prominent libertarian organization, says Ron Paul is wrong on the Russian-Ukraine situation. Dr. Ron Paul has stated that Crimea has the right to secede from Ukraine and join Russia. McCobin says, the vote was illegal and forced by Russian military intervention.

On Monday, McCobin put out a statement saying:

"While it’s important criticize misconduct of the United States and some of its Western allies exacerbating the turmoil in the Middle East over the past two decades, it is also important to remember that there are other aggressors in the world; Russia — with it’s ongoing wars in the Northern Caucasus, the invasion of South Ossetia, and it’s most recent annexation of Crimea — being key among them.

Former Congressman Ron Paul, whose views are interpreted by many as wholly representative of the libertarian movement, gets it wrong when he speaks of Crimea’s right to secede. Make no mistake about it, Crimea was annexed by Russian military force at gunpoint and its supposedly democratic “referendum” was a farce. Besides a suspiciously high voter turnout with legitimate international observers, the referendum gave Crimeans only two choices — join Russia now or later.

It’s much too simplistic to solely condemn the US for any kind of geopolitical instability in the world. Non-interventionists that sympathize with Russia by condoning Crimea’s secession and blaming the West for Ukrainian crisis fail to see the larger picture. Putin’s government is one of the least free in the world and is clearly the aggressor in Crimea, as it was even beforehand with its support of the Yanukovych regime that shot and tortured its own citizens on the streets of Kyiv.

The recent spate of anti-war activists arrested in Russia is just one of many examples that illustrate that the Russian Federation is not a free country and everyone should be very careful with showing sympathies to an autocratic leader such as President Putin.

In contrast to his father, Senator Rand Paul gets it right by condemning Russian aggression while not subscribing to hawkish calls for military intervention at the same time. It is one thing to not intervene; it is another thing to applaud an autocrat for the sake of blaming our own government."

 Ron Paul stated in an article in USA Today:

"Critics point to the Russian "occupation" of Crimea as evidence that no fair vote could have taken place. Where were these people when an election held in an Iraq occupied by U.S. troops was called a "triumph of democracy"?

Perhaps the U.S. officials who supported the unconstitutional overthrow of Ukraine's government should refocus their energies on learning our own Constitution, which does not allow the U.S. government to overthrow governments overseas or send a billion dollars to bail out Ukraine and its international creditors."

 I agree with both. I agree with Ron Paul that Crimea has the right to secede and I agree with McCorbin that the Russian government is one of the most tyrannical governments in the world. I agree that Crimea was annexed, and did not secede. but I also agree that the the U.S. government has no right to interfere. While what Russia has done is wrong, Ron Paul simply wants the United States government to stay out of a conflict that does not involve them. Even economic sanctions are an act of war... Just like our sanctions with Iran.

While I disagree with Dr. Paul on certain issues, his knowledge and understanding of foreign policy is better than most. The great things about libertarians is that we can disagree on somethings, but still move forward to change our nation for the better.

The Appropriate U.S. Response on the Russia/Ukraine Crisis is.... Nothing

After more than ten years of constant war in the Afghanistan and a sixty year history of constant intervention in the internal struggles of sovereign nations what have we got? The only thing we create with our current foreign policy is animosity towards us and more terrorists. Every time we drop a bomb killing innocent people, we create terrorists who want to seek revenge. It's called blow back, people, and it is a concept our government is ignoring even though it has played out time and time again in almost every scenario where we have interfered in the internal politics of other countries. And it's not always war. Sometimes we simply use our spy networks to overthrow foreign leaders (many times democratically elected) and install our own pro-America dictators. Nine times out of ten, we see blow back that puts Americans in more harm than anything else.

So, what should the American response to the Russia/Ukraine crisis be? Nothing. Nothing at all. Let these two countries work it out themselves. If it expands beyond talks and heads directly into war, what good would it do be adding a third country into the mess? This is how World War I was started. Two countries went to war, each one pulling in their allies until all of Europe was covered in the blood of soldiers.

If Ukraine becomes the battle ground for the two most powerful nuclear armed nations in the world, there will be no Ukraine left when the dust settles. And that is the best case scenario for America's intervention. The worst, and very possible, outcome would be World War III in a time when most nations across the world have, or are working on, nuclear weapons. If you fundamentalists want to usher in the end of the world, well, this is the best way to do it. World War III will end modern civilization as we know it.

Say NO to anymore foreign intervention. Say NO to more war. Say NO our tyrannical foreign policy.