Ron Paul Attacks Newt Gingrich Over Military Deferments

Republican presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) attacked Newt Gingrich over getting draft deferments while advocating a hawkish foreign policy Thursday in an appearance on Fox News.

"There was one other issue that I personally found annoying is that he's probably as aggressive with the military as anybody, he supports all the wars in the Middle East a thousand times more than I would," Paul said. "But you know, in the 1960s when I was drafted and in the military he got several deferments, he chose not to go, now he will send our kids to war. But at that time he said that one person wouldn’t make a difference, he didn't know how he could make a difference. So I see that as important information, people should know that, and it reflects on him."

"Given everything I believe in, a large part of me thinks I should of gone over," said Gingrich in 1985 to Jane Mayer, then at the Wall Street Journal. "Part of the question I had to ask myself was what difference I would have made." He said that "Vietnam was the right war at the right time" but that Congress and the media lost the war. Gingrich received draft deferments for being a graduate student at Tulane University and having children, though his nearsightedness and flat feet may have kept him out anyway.

Paul served as a flight surgeon in the Air Force from 1963 to 1965 and in the U.S. Air National Guard from 1965 to 1968. He released an ad in September touting his service. Paul said in July that he had received more campaign contributions from members of the military than the other GOP candidates and President Barack Obama, a statement PolitiFact rated as true.

Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul are virtually tied in Iowa ahead of the Jan. 3 caucuses according to a poll released Tuesday by Public Policy Polling.

Comments

[EastCstOlsenGrl]

11:17 PM on 01/07/2012

Ron Paul so eloquently won this argument in the ABC debate tonight with this simple sentence: “When I was drafted, I was married and had two kids; and I went.”

[clusters]

07:13 AM on 01/05/2012

How did Ron Paul "attack" Newt?

Newt insulted Ron Paul earlier and they asked for a response.

If Newt doesnt want to deal with the truth, maybe he should keep his mouth shut.

[celebs4truth]

07:51 AM on 12/29/2011

Help this pro-Ron Paul, Denver Conspiracy Examiner article go totally viral! Help Ron Paul get elected! Send it out on all the social media networks! “Support the troops by supporting Ron Paul” http://www.examiner.com/conspiracy-in-denver/support-the-troops-by-supporting-ron-paul

[CountArtha]

04:59 PM on 12/16/2011

YES!!! Paul the Air Force vet plays the Chickenhawk card at last.

[Charles Burrris]

01:12 AM on 12/16/2011

"Truth is treason in the empire of lies." -- Ron Paul

Only Ron Paul, of all the presidential candidates of both major parties, has repeatedly spoken out clearly and forcefully against the belligerent war propaganda and calculated lies in the bipartisan lead up to war with Iran, against the bipartisan campaign for punitive sanctions against Iran, and against further covert operations to destabilize the fragile geopolitical situation in the Mideast.

He is not afraid to speak truth to power to the neocon chickenhawks of the GOP and the faux doves of the Obama regime.

The principled constitutionalist and noninterventionist Paul was right from the start about our disastrous preemptive imperial wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, right from the start about the destructive 'blowback' fomenting more hatred directed towards America, right from the start about the Federal Reserve's monetary policies creating the housing bubble which led to the 2008 financial meltdown, right from the start about the War on Drugs, the USA Patriot Act and the TSA imposing a police state upon the American people.

Ron Paul 2012. Right Then. Right Now. Right For America.

[Jackson Baer]

07:49 AM on 12/16/2011

Ron Paul is the only conservative running. I'll vote for him in the republican primaries and as a third party candidate if I have to. Either way, he has a real shot to win in 2012.

http://www.whatthehellbook.com/the-book/

[christopherflynn]

11:10 AM on 12/16/2011

Right for America????? only if you're an isolationist and ignore the fact that we are a tiny fraction of both the world's total area and population, and the survival of the earth depends upon the interdependence of all nations....

[BeautifulWorld]

03:12 PM on 12/16/2011

Ron Paul is a non interventionist not an isolationist so your comment makes no sense.

[EastCstOlsenGrl]

11:19 PM on 01/07/2012

he's not an isolationist; he's a non-interventionist. There is a big difference, and you should learn the difference.

[clanMcDonald]

11:51 PM on 12/15/2011

The media didn't lose the war, a dunderhead by the name of Westmoreland did more than his fair share seal our fate in the deep jungles of Vietnam. Newt was busy getting an advance degree in European colonialism rather than fight the domino theory.

[CharlieFoxDogs]

11:55 PM on 12/15/2011

I was there when Westmoreland was relieved of duty, it raised moral.

[CharlieFoxDogs]

11:48 PM on 12/15/2011

The Republican Chickenhawk list is long: Jon Kyl, Rick Santorum, Richard Shelby, Tom Colburn, John Cronyn,Mitch McConnell, Newt Gingrich, John Boehner, Eric Cantor, etc.etc.

[grant06]

11:31 PM on 12/15/2011

From the article: "... though his nearsightedness and flat feet may have kept him out anyway."

I don't know about the flat feet. Frankly, I haven't got a clue what a flat foot is. As far the nearsightedness, I wore glasses for nearsightedness when I was a soldier, so what? I knew a lot of guys who wore glasses.

[Carl Caroli]

11:29 PM on 12/15/2011

Most of the GOP leadership are chicken hawks. Always willing to use some one else's kid as canon fodder.

[gotaka]

11:16 PM on 12/15/2011

Tell the truth, BOOYAH!

[Don Stalvino]

11:15 PM on 12/15/2011

When did BHO Jr. serve?

[frieswitdat]

11:20 PM on 12/15/2011

Is this a prerequisite for the presidency?

[CharlieFoxDogs]

11:31 PM on 12/15/2011

Born in 1961 alittle late for Viet Nam could have made the desert storm but was in college.

[itseverywhere]

11:10 PM on 12/15/2011

Note to Paul: You're a Republican. Get over being around chicken-hawks.

[colorperdaughter]

11:26 PM on 12/15/2011

Chicken-sh+ts

[Rubinwitz12]

10:58 PM on 12/15/2011

If you believe Iran is under your bed planning to blow you up right now DO NOT vote for Ron Paul. Vote For the status two party quo

[bgofca]

10:57 PM on 12/15/2011

well ron paul would be a good candidate if he wasn't against women's rights, civil rights, social security , the federal student loan program, gay rights etc.
the freedom candidate wants to take away freedom from women and minorities.

[gotaka]

11:10 PM on 12/15/2011

You know nothing of the man.

[waldopepper]

11:16 PM on 12/15/2011

I think he knows more about the man than you do.

[grant06]

11:33 PM on 12/15/2011

Sounds to me like he has him pegged.

[AntoninK]

11:38 PM on 12/15/2011

Correct on the student loan program. Wrong on women's rights, civil rights and gay rights. Correct to a degree on social security- he has said that it would be wrong to take it away from those who have become dependent on the system, especially the elderly. He doesn't want to get rid of it, he says it's going to get rid of itself when we can't pay for it and the system collapses. Paul has proposed cutting military spending to prop the system up for those who need it.

[mflorian]

01:00 AM on 12/16/2011

He's simply saying out loud what Republicans do with programs they don't like. They cut the funding and then, when it inevitably fails, say it was because the program was flawed from the beginning.

[summerlin south]

11:14 PM on 12/15/2011

The NWPP is also known as the ARYAN NATIONS AKA AS THE AMERICAN NAZI
PARTY WAS AND STILL IS/

Now prove your comment with links that have been fact checked---thats my point.

[triplettam]

11:20 PM on 12/15/2011

Yeah, all three of the "Black Panthets."

[Stephen McAbee]

11:41 PM on 12/15/2011

Bad people, and groups support every candidate, and every politician. The fact they support Ron Paul only shows their stupidity.

[summerlin south]

11:52 PM on 12/15/2011

Well Stephen,I agree with you---But it would be helpful to Paul to come right out and state--Thanks but no thanks for your support.Considering what came to the forefront tonight about about his newsletters it seems to reinforce why storm-front supports him.

[mflorian]

01:01 AM on 12/16/2011

The suggestion is that they know where their bread is buttered.