A Secure America

All the candidates for president have their plans for making America more secure. One of the first things about Ron Paul that caught my attention was his emphasis on blowback when he explains his foreign policy views. Blowback is the term the CIA uses to describe unintended consequences of our foreign policies. For example:

• The United States armed and gave battle training to Osama bin Laden. The intent of this training of bin Laden (along with many other people) was to send them to fight Soviet Union in Afghanistan. Twenty-three years later, he used this training to mastermind the World Trade Center attacks of 9/11.
• Iran had a democratically elected leader named Mohammed Mosaddeq. The CIA's conducted a military operation and removed him from power. A short-term blowback was the Iran Hostage Crisis, where outrage at the U.S.-installed government was cited as a major motivation for the hostage taking. A longer-term blowback is the complete refusal of Iran to engage with the Western nations on their nuclear program. More broadly, Operation Ajax was one of the first major contributors to an unstable Middle East where the populace hates the United States.
  

These are more major examples of blowback, but they are not the only ones. Ron Paul's message is that spreading democracy at the point of a gun makes America less secure. Our unwelcome military presence in other countries invariably results in unforeseen negative consequences. Long term security can only be achieved through open communication with other governments, and by setting an example other countries will want to emulate.