Photo Credit: Sword At-The-Ready

First, let me say that I agree with 99% of Ron Paul's views on economics, gold, taxes, etc. However on one particular point he is not only sadly clueless, he is a dangerous idiot: namely his view of nuclear weapons and Iran.

Read this partial transcript from the Iowa Republican Debate:

Fox News Insider, Complete Text of the Iowa Republican Debate on Fox News Channel

WALLACE: Congressman Paul — Congressman Paul, you say that President Obama is not too soft on Iran, you say that he is too tough on Iran. I want to put up some of your statements. “Sanctions are not diplomacy,” you say. “They are a precursor to war and an embarrassment to a country that pays lip service to free trade.” As for Iran’s nuclear ambitions, you wrote this: “One can understand why they might want to become nuclear capable, if only to defend themselves and to be treated more respectfully.”

Is that your policy towards Iran?

PAUL: Well, even our own CIA gives me this information, that they have no evidence that they’re working on a weapon. Just think of what we went through in the Cold War. When I was in the Air Force, after I was drafted in the Air Force, all through the ’60s, we were — we were standing up against the Soviets. They had like 30,000 nuclear weapons with intercontinental missiles.

Just think of the agitation and the worrying of a country that might get a nuclear weapon some day. And just think of how many nuclear weapons surround Iran. The Chinese are there. The Indians are there.
The Pakistanis are there. The Israelis are there. The United States is there. All these countries — China has nuclear weapons.

Why wouldn’t it be natural that they might want a weapon? There’d be — internationally, they’d be given more respect.

Ron Paul, what an idiot! The Russians and the Chinese are rational human beings. Given a choice between life and death, they would choose life. For rational human beings Mutually Assured Destruction is indeed a deterrent.

However, as Bernard Lewis explained (see my article August 22 - End of the World -12th Imam - Muhammad al-Mahdi), to the madmen running Iran, Mutually Assured Destruction is not a constraint; it is an inducement.

That is, a nuclear Armageddon is precisely what Iran wants in order to usher in the Day of Judgment where all Muslims will go to Heaven and the rest of us go to Hell.

In addition, because of Iran's deal with Chavez in Venezuela, a nuclear Iran would be a clear and present danger to our country:

Fiery Spirited Zionist, Ron Paul's Demented Foreign Policy Views

I realize Paul doesn't give a damn about Israel but Iran has an agreement with chavez to place ballistic missiles in Venezuela which can reach us and has its hezbollah proxy operating in the tri-border region of South America. Let's not forget Iran has killed our troops in Iraq. All of this shows that Iran is a direct threat to us, not just something which can simply be dismissed as a country on the other side of the world and therefore not our problem.