Swords into Plowshares Quotes

“Must there always be “wars and rumors of war”? Accepting the inevitability of war is one thing, but glorifying war in the name of God and claiming that it reflects strong character and patriotism is quite another.”
― Ron Paul, Swords into Plowshares: A Life in Wartime and a Future of Peace and Prosperity

“I see the Bush Doctrine as an American-style “enabling act,” giving dictatorial powers to any sitting president.”
― Ron Paul, Swords into Plowshares: A Life in Wartime and a Future of Peace and Prosperity

“Thanks to Edward Snowden and others, the great threat from the NSA surveillance is now more clearly understood. Current attacks on our liberties very greatly infringe the freedoms meant to be protected by the First and Fourth Amendments. If a whistle-blower reveals the truth about wrongful government actions, calls arise to charge him with treason for hating America. Allies become enemies when it becomes known that we spy on them as well, as it has now been revealed.”
― Ron Paul, Swords into Plowshares: A Life in Wartime and a Future of Peace and Prosperity

“The transition from foreign enemies to domestic enemies is a natural sequence when safety is emphasized over liberty. It involves the FISA court, PATRIOT Act authority, out of control NSA surveillance, and enthusiastic presidential use of the Espionage Act of 1917 to suppress and intimidate truth-tellers and whistle-blowers. We have an FBI that participates in and encourages the process by breaking laws in its sting operations and entrapments. Plus, there are illegal seizures of property at all levels of government. Property confiscated is not turned over to general government revenue. Instead, it automatically is put in the treasury of the policing organization that did the confiscating. This process is dangerous; it systematically undermines our liberty while providing funding and perverse incentives for organizations that do the policing. This brings to mind the CIA using drug money to finance secret activities during Iran-Contra.”
― Ron Paul, Swords into Plowshares: A Life in Wartime and a Future of Peace and Prosperity

“The police state We now have well over 100,000 domestic federal law enforcement agents armed and ready to enforce the laws to “make everyone safe and secure.” We also have our TSA “friends” at the airports protecting us with an army of over 50,000 bureaucrats. The Department of Homeland Security has more than 240,000 employees. The FBI has about 35,000 employees. Around 90,000 IRS employees enforce draconian tax laws that limit self-sufficiency, put people in fear, and are used as a political tool to help suppress dissenters to the empire. There are many thousands of others “making sure we’re safe and secure from our foreign enemies” while our domestic enemies, including politicians, bureaucrats, and government profiteers, are ignored.”
― Ron Paul, Swords into Plowshares: A Life in Wartime and a Future of Peace and Prosperity

“How did the American people ever reach this point where they believe that US aggression in the Middle East will make us safe when it does the opposite? How did the American people ever reach the point where they believe that fighting unconstitutional wars is required to protect our freedoms and our Constitution? Why do we allow the NSA, CIA, FBI, TSA, etc. to destroy our liberty at home, as part of the Global War on Terror, with a pretext that they are preserving our liberty? Why are the lying politicians reelected and allowed to bankrupt our country, destroy our money, and enter wars without the proper consent? Why do the American people suffer in silence and not scream “Enough is enough!”? We’ve had enough of the “humanitarian do-gooders” and the proponents of “American exceptionalism” who give us nothing but war, economic suffering, and less freedom. This can and must be stopped.”
― Ron Paul, Swords into Plowshares: A Life in Wartime and a Future of Peace and Prosperity

“But propaganda, fear, and threats of being accused of being unpatriotic and treasonous are powerful means of controlling the young soldiers who are told their fighting is crucial for the country’s survival. It’s the young soldiers who must risk and even lose their lives. It’s the typical politicians, who have been around for thousands of years, who have continued the carnage with their humanitarian lies and demands for wars.”
― Ron Paul, Swords into Plowshares: A Life in Wartime and a Future of Peace and Prosperity

“One thing for sure, Muhammad Ali stood his ground and refused to go thousands of miles from home to kill people who never did him any harm—a heroic stand. For this stand, he, like others, was arrested and faced imprisonment. What the government wants is efficient, sterile killers in immoral wars who can be awarded medals and paraded before cheering audiences as great patriotic defenders of our liberty.”
― Ron Paul, Swords into Plowshares: A Life in Wartime and a Future of Peace and Prosperity

“Government is wasteful, fraudulent, and abusive by its very nature. To get rid of waste, fraud, and abuse, government power has to be dealt with. Government’s legitimacy has to be challenged. Its claims of success must be refuted. The people who desire peace and prosperity must accept the fact that government and the politicians never deliver peace or prosperity.”
― Ron Paul, Swords into Plowshares: A Life in Wartime and a Future of Peace and Prosperity

“In addition to Eisenhower identifying the military-industrial complex, we now have the police-industrial complex, the medical-industrial complex, the surveillance-industrial complex, and the media-industrial complex.”
― Ron Paul, Swords into Plowshares: A Life in Wartime and a Future of Peace and Prosperity

“Secrecy is paramount for the government and privacy is lost for the citizens during wars as well. Everyone is a suspect and liberty protections are ignored by the empire. The excuse is always that restricting liberty is required to make the people safe from enemies, seldom seen and identified but ever-present and demonized.”
― Ron Paul, Swords into Plowshares: A Life in Wartime and a Future of Peace and Prosperity

“The Costs of War Project at Brown University reports that over 6,800 US troops have died in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. In addition, the Costs of War Project says at least 6,780 US contractors, rarely counted, should be included in the American death toll. Suicides by American veterans number into the thousands and are not counted in battle-related deaths. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi and Afghan citizens have died as well. Total dollar costs for the wars will exceed $4 trillion. I predict it will cost even more since the total tally won’t be in for decades. And it’s not over yet. Even in 2013 we still had over 100,000 Department of Defense contractors in Afghanistan. And we’re not about to close down the biggest embassy in the world in Baghdad. There are no plans to actually leave either country. Yet there are plenty of plans to maintain and to expand our presence worldwide as we deal with Syria, Lebanon, Iran, or wherever our US Empire chooses. Killing hundreds of thousands of the so-called enemy makes no sense given that most of them had no involvement in 9/11. This is pure bloodlust.”
― Ron Paul, Swords into Plowshares: A Life in Wartime and a Future of Peace and Prosperity

“If government is truly limited to being small and nearly irrelevant, there will be no incentive to “own” government. For this change to occur, the following will be required: a philosophical rejection of government waging war without consent, running people’s lives, and violating social or economic liberty; nullification of laws by public pressure or by state action; legalization of private alternatives to all government programs; prohibition of fraudulent money, private and government; peaceful civil disobedience; acceptance of responsibility to care for oneself and one’s family instead of relying on government or private theft; refusal to participate in government crimes through the military and tax system with full realization of the risks of practicing civil disobedience since government will not go away quietly; jury nullification of bad laws, especially with regard to taxes, drugs, and overregulation of social and voluntary activities; and acceptance that, while sins and vices may be a negative, they aren’t in themselves crimes and are not to be restricted by the state.”
― Ron Paul, Swords into Plowshares: A Life in Wartime and a Future of Peace and Prosperity

“The people, who far outnumber the would-be dictators, can succeed in a worldwide revolution that fully deprives the dictators of their power. But, any revolt must not lead to just changing the name of the authoritarian system or the political parties in the system. Instead, the revolt must be based on rejecting the trust in government doing the things that only the people can and should do for themselves. This revolt will probably come in stages—in bits and pieces—and be different in the various countries of the world.”
― Ron Paul, Swords into Plowshares: A Life in Wartime and a Future of Peace and Prosperity

“Why volunteer to fight in wars that contribute nothing for our security and undermine our Constitution? More and more Americans are beginning to realize that the government has little to do with “defending our freedoms” or stopping terrorism.”
― Ron Paul, Swords into Plowshares: A Life in Wartime and a Future of Peace and Prosperity

“But, no matter how big or small dictators are, they all accept 100 percent the principle that granting government authority to manipulate our lives and control our property is legitimate and morally acceptable.”
― Ron Paul, Swords into Plowshares: A Life in Wartime and a Future of Peace and Prosperity

“Sadly this process started early in our history with Adams’s Alien and Sedition Acts in 1798 and has continued through our history to the present day with Obama reinvigorating the Espionage Act of 1917.”
― Ron Paul, Swords into Plowshares: A Life in Wartime and a Future of Peace and Prosperity

“Those individuals who refuse to join in the lies supporting the war are condemned as being unpatriotic, ill-informed, or friends of the enemy. If the propaganda doesn’t silence them and they are seen as a sufficient threat to the war machine, the government will enact laws granting power to arrest and punish those refusing to succumb to the propaganda. This will be done not only to punish the direct targets. It will also be done to frighten others who may be considering boldly challenging the authoritarians supporting a war that will only benefit the special interests.”
― Ron Paul, Swords into Plowshares: A Life in Wartime and a Future of Peace and Prosperity

“The war propaganda effort requires demonizing the enemy, especially the leader of the country targeted. It’s easier to convince people to sacrifice to fight another “Hitler” than an enemy who demonstrates an element of humanity. That is the role of the propagandists: Demonize and build hate regardless of how many lies have to be told.”
― Ron Paul, Swords into Plowshares: A Life in Wartime and a Future of Peace and Prosperity

“Critics become criminals since truth is anathema to an empire or any authoritarian government that depends on lies for its existence. The informant who provides the people with the truth cannot be protected by whistle-blower laws or the Constitution. It is the truth-tellers who are sent to prison or are killed while those who undermine our Constitution are promoted. This lasts until the corrupt government is dismantled.”
― Ron Paul, Swords into Plowshares: A Life in Wartime and a Future of Peace and Prosperity

“Currently we’re suffering from the fear instilled into Americans that another 9/11 is just around the corner. We’ve also been brainwashed into believing the Federal Reserve just saved us from a total financial collapse in the past seven years even though the Fed was one of the most important causes of the crisis. To deal with the threats of another attack and another financial crisis we are expected to complacently accept endless spending, endless debt, endless bailouts, endless inflation by the Federal Reserve, endless spending by the Congress, and even endless war.”
― Ron Paul, Swords into Plowshares: A Life in Wartime and a Future of Peace and Prosperity

“Refuting the false promises requires philosophic understanding of economic interventionism, central banking, and the deeply flawed foreign policy of meddling in the affairs of other nations.”
― Ron Paul, Swords into Plowshares: A Life in Wartime and a Future of Peace and Prosperity

“A majority that yields to the promises of security instead of seeking liberty and self-reliance is giving up something real and valuable in return for false promises. The fact that strong leaders are willing to demagogue, spin, deceive, and lie proves their goal is neither to care for the people nor to advance liberty. Instead, it’s their perverted desire to rule over others that drives them. But, even authoritarian regimes don’t last if there isn’t general acceptance of their governance by the people.”
― Ron Paul, Swords into Plowshares: A Life in Wartime and a Future of Peace and Prosperity

“And the irony is that the war purchases are recorded as a positive for economic growth and the GDP. Though the war spending is an economic negative and provides no improvement in the people’s standard of living, the government statisticians brag about an upward blip in the GDP. Besides, these bills are paid for by borrowing and printing money, thus increasing future debt obligations and causing higher prices for the next generation.”
― Ron Paul, Swords into Plowshares: A Life in Wartime and a Future of Peace and Prosperity

“The military-industrial complex corporations never complain of higher prices for bombs, planes, drones, and missiles. They benefit when prices rise and when cost overruns are covered with more money from the US Treasury. Those who profit are the greatest champions of the military readiness and armed conflict. They are represented by lobbyists who greatly influence both political parties. Corporate war profits and high union wages bring about remarkable cooperation between the two parties despite the political rhetoric suggesting passionate disagreement. And these militaristic policies are defended with patriotic zeal, and in appeals regarding our moral obligation to take care of all the world’s needs and to meet our obligation to spread our “goodness” around the world.”
― Ron Paul, Swords into Plowshares: A Life in Wartime and a Future of Peace and Prosperity

“Denial is not a solution. Governments naturally lie to maintain power. Eventually the deception perpetrated is believed by the government officials themselves. This encourages them to continue a failed policy until it’s too late. Ego plays a large part in it as well. It’s highly likely that our policy of foreign intervention will not be reversed and that world chaos will result as a new world order sets in—and it won’t be the New World Order that interventionists have promoted for so many years.”
― Ron Paul, Swords into Plowshares: A Life in Wartime and a Future of Peace and Prosperity

“The Bush Doctrine has continued in force and expanded in application under President Obama. If the Bush Doctrine is not reversed, it will become a major contributing factor one day to a financial crisis associated with a national bankruptcy. It will then invite all the peoples of the many countries that we have offended with our aggressive interventions to pile on big time. Retaliation will be vicious. All Americans will be blamed and “punished” even though the tragic mess was orchestrated by the few who manipulated foreign policy for their own benefit. The greatest fault of the American people has been that their complacency prevented effective resistance to the government overstepping its bounds and acting in a lawless manner.”
― Ron Paul, Swords into Plowshares: A Life in Wartime and a Future of Peace and Prosperity

“Associated with the Bush Doctrine is preemptive war, the assassination of Americans and foreigners without due process, secret military prisons, extraordinary rendition, and torture. How anyone can argue that this makes America safer and more respected is beyond me. Common sense should tell us that such actions are a sure way to create more enemies. Resentment toward the US grows with each new attack. Resentment also grows with the sweep of the US military, and US support of dictators and insurgents, around the world.”
― Ron Paul, Swords into Plowshares: A Life in Wartime and a Future of Peace and Prosperity

“These manipulations are not evidence that evil is a result of religious beliefs. Instead, they show how evil men usurp the authority of religion to promote war. That this tactic can succeed reflects that too much complacency among people is preventing resistance against the thugs who coopt religion and use it for evil ends.”
― Ron Paul, Swords into Plowshares: A Life in Wartime and a Future of Peace and Prosperity

“It still amazes me how complicit the media are in propagandizing for war. This is true whether it’s a Republican or Democratic-leaning entity. Both sides spout the lies delivered by government officials to encourage public support for wars. Whether the president is a Republican or a Democrat, the media will be supportive. It just may be that the owners of the large media entities are closely connected to the military-industrial complex.”
― Ron Paul, Swords into Plowshares: A Life in Wartime and a Future of Peace and Prosperity