An end to the war in Iraq? Ron Paul says it's just an escalation

Washington - The mainstream media and the U.S. administration are claiming the war in Iraq has ended as 50,000 combat troops have left the region. However, Republican Congressman Ron Paul says it's not the end but rather an escalation.

During an Oval Office address on Tuesday, United States President Barack Obama stated that it was time to “turn the page” and announced that the combat mission in Iraq has come to a conclusion: “Operation Iraqi Freedom is over, and the Iraqi people now have lead responsibility for the security of their country.” In an op-ed piece published on Campaign for Liberty, former Presidential candidate and longtime Congressman, Ron Paul, wrote that the war in Iraq has not ended and, instead, has escalated. Paul argues that this one of the administration’s “political maneuverings” and “semantics” in order to convince the general public that the war has to come an end: “However, military officials confirm that we are committed to intervention in that country for years to come, and our operations have in fact, changed minimally, if really at all.” The author of “End the Fed” and “The Revolution: A Manifesto,” wondered if the U.S. government even knows how to an end a war anymore, which means, says Paul, to have all troops out of a foreign country, end the killing and getting killed and cease sending armed personnel to a country and draining “our treasury for military operations in that foreign land.” The father of Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican Senate candidate, notes that 50,000 U.S. troops remain in Iraq receiving combat pay because they are doing precisely that: Accompany Iraqi troops on patrol duty, have an involvement in hunting down suspected terrorists and provide air support for their military. “They should be receiving combat pay, because they will be serving a combat role!” “Of course the number of private contractors -- who perform many of the same roles as troops, but for a lot more money -- is expected to double. So this is a funny way of ending combat operations in Iraq. We are still meddling in their affairs and we are still putting our men and women in danger, and we are still spending money we don’t have. This looks more like an escalation than a draw-down to me!” Paul concludes that there is an economic crisis at home and that the U.S. foreign policy is based on illusion, which Americans, says Paul, have to suffer for: “A return to the traditional American foreign policy of active private engagement and non-interventionism is the only alternative that can restore our moral and fiscal health.”