George Washington Endorses Ron Paul?

“Just come home.”--Ron Paul, Iowa Republican Debate, 8/5/07

“If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world.”--British King George III, 1783, speaking of George Washington when the king heard that General Washington would return to his homelife rather than stay in political power after his military victory

Relinquishing power to return home is what makes America great and different in the world.

• George Washington was our Cincinnatus, a reference to the Roman republican leader who rose to fight when necessary and then returned home rather than seize power and make himself a dictator.
• The Cincinnatus tradition is a central theme of American history. Americans named a major city after the idea that we as American minutemen are a nation of Cincinnati (the plural of Cincinnatus).
• Leaving is also the key component to our Western cowboy heroes. The film is not over until the hero rides off into the sunset.
• General Dwight D. Eisenhower initially favored the Cold War Marshall Plan and NATO alliance as the means to allow US troop withdrawals from Europe. Similarly, President Eisenhower tried both strategic nuclear weapons and CIA actions because these new methods promised to enable troop reductions. Eisenhower tried to be like George Washington and Ron Paul and just come home but Eisenhower’s attempt to replace one kind of intervention with other interventions ultimately bogged us down with more of everything for half a century.

Keep your word.

Honor your promises to the American people.

Iraq Timeline of Withdrawal Promises:

• George W. Bush in 2000 promised America no nation-building crusades.
• President Bush’s initial, 2002-2003 official Iraq policy is to just come home as soon as possible.
• Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld predicted in February 2003, "It could last six days, six weeks. I doubt six months" (BBC News World Edition, "Rumsfeld foresees swift Iraq war," 2/7/03).
• The 2003 pro-Bush, pro-war punditry ridiculed a long-term stay in Iraq as a Democratic-Clinton-left idea, "the very premise of an extended "occupation" is antithetical to President Bush's policy of liberation" (Jed Babbin, National Review Online (NRO), March 6, 2003).
• Bush declared "Mission accomplished!" for Iraq on May 2, 2003.
• We could have toppled Saddam Hussein, checked for WMDs, setup a provisional government, and just come home in 90 days in mid-2003, which would have avoided the extra, endless nation-building debacle, avoided the Abu Ghraib prison torture disgrace (US opened the prison in August 2003), and avoided about 4,000 American dead.
• Vice President Dick Cheney on May 30, 2005 declared the Iraqi insurgency to be in its "last throes."
• Lieutenant General David Petraeus' spokesman stated on July 29, 2005 that Petraeus "has been saying for a long time now that there's been tremendous progress in the Iraqi security forces" ("tremendous" Iraqi progress is supposed to allow "tremendous" US withdrawal).
• A British memo leaked in July 2005 stated that US officials wanted "a relatively bold reduction in force numbers."
• Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and General George W. Casey said in mid-2005 that the US could begin withdrawal in mid-2006 and finish complete withdrawal from Iraq by mid-2007.
• Rumsfeld urged troop withdrawals in a November 6, 2006 memo, 2 days before his resignation.
• The British withdrew from Basra city last year in 2007 and left it in a condition that is about the same as it would have been if they had withdrawn 5 years ago in 2003.

"You put your troops in, you pull your troops out."-- US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, 2005, the year he suggested withdrawing from Iraq in 2006

We have done our job.

It is time to honor American traditions and just come home.

John Wayne ("the Duke") walks off into the sunset in the John Ford Americana masterpiece The Searchers (spoiler ending):