Ron Paul Visits University of Iowa with Anti-War Message

Texas Congressman and Republican Presidential Candidate, Ron Paul, told a 1000-plus person crowd at the that he won’t hesitate to cut a trillion dollars out of the budget by getting rid of five government departments and slashing the military budget down to $500 billion.

On his most recent swing through Iowa, Paul said he has been accused of being unpatriotic for his anti-war stance, but the recent movement of “American Exceptionalism,” he said, in which American ideals are “force(d) down the throats of everybody and if they don’t accept us we’re going to bomb them to oblivion” is both not right and expensive.

“This whole notion that people go into the military just to fight wars, useless wars that aren’t even declared, is complete nonsense,” he said. “They’re willing to defend our country, but they don’t want to just go to war for the sake of war.”

It was Paul’s unique stance against war that brought out Bo Zhou, a post-doc medical student with the University of Iowa, to hear more.

“I don’t know that much about him but I did know he’s anti-war,” she said.

“Being a doctor, he might have a different view on government and how to take care of people.”

Paul downplayed the anti-military label, noting his top three individual campaign contributors are people from the Air Force, Army and Navy. He added that his opponent “in the top of the polls right now,” Mitt Romney’s top three campaign contributors were from three big banking institutions.

Brian Hallstead, a Linn County co-chairman of the Ron Paul 2012 campaign for president, also attended the event with his family. He said Paul has a 35-year track record and the experience to be able to create real change.

“The hope and change the country was promised four years ago hasn’t really come to fruition in the way it was put forth to us,” he said. “Our troops are still in multiple countries, we still have 900 bases on 150 different countries so we’re basically subsidizing the local economies.

“Getting the right person in the Whitehouse, like Dr. Ron Paul, is essential - he can bring an end to what is causing us such grief now and financial hardship in this country.”

Paul touted state and the constitutional rights of Americans, such as the 2^nd Amendment. He told the cheering crowd the older notion of a government taking care of its people is outdated, and a newer confidence is needed in creating a free society.

“We have to have a new understanding and a new conviction that what we want to have is to be able to live in a free society and have the right to our lives, the right to our bodies and the right to the fruits of our labor,” he said.

Paul said many of the freedoms that Americans enjoy - many countries don’t have - are being frittered away.

“Most of history has been dominated by tyranny and today Americans are annoyed, upset, confused at times, but I don’t know if they clearly understand that we’re having less and less freedom and more and more tyranny and it’s going in the opposite direction and we need to change that direction,” he said. “That is my goal and my intent, to fight for the cause of liberty to make sure we have the maximum amount of freedom and the maximum amount of prosperity in this country.”

Correction: The article originally stated that Paul wants to slash the military budget down to 500,000 billion. The correct figure is $500 billion.