Rand Paul Single-Handedly Halts a Potential Future Military Confrontation with Russia

Last week, Senator Rand Paul single-handedly prevented the passage of an amendment that would have further eroded Americans’ constitutional rights, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal 2012 (S.1867), amendment No. 1274.

This week he has stopped another  amendment. This one would have significantly increased tensions with Russia and committed the United States to fight a war in Russia's backyard, if Russia attacked Georgia.

Senator Rand, as Brian Koening at The New American put it, "single-handedly thwarted an amendment proposed by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) drafted to advance Georgia’s application for NATO membership...Paul firmly opposed Rubio’s amendment, suggesting that expanding NATO in this sensitive region could entangle the United States in Georgia’s affairs with a nuclear-armed Russia, potentially risking a U.S.-Russian war."

Here's Pat Buchanan on what Rand did:

Last week, Sen. Marco Rubio, rising star of the Republican right, on everyone's short list for VP, called for a unanimous vote, without debate, on a resolution directing President Obama to accept Georgia's plan for membership in NATO at the upcoming NATO summit in Chicago.

Rubio was pushing to have the U.S. Senate pressure Obama into fast-tracking Georgia into NATO, making Tbilisi an ally the United States would be obligated by treaty to go to war to defend...

And for whose benefit is Rubio pushing to have his own countrymen committed to fight for a Georgia that, three years ago, started an unprovoked war with Russia? Who cooked up this scheme to involve Americans in future wars in the Caucasus that are none of our business?

The answer is unknown. What is known is the name of the senator who blocked it – Rand Paul, son of Ron Paul, who alone stepped in and objected, defeating Rubio's effort to get a unanimous vote.

The resolution was pulled.

Here's Buchanan on the backstory:

In August 2008, as the world's leaders gathered in Beijing for the Olympic games, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, hot-headed and erratic, made his gamble for greatness.

It began with a stunning artillery barrage on Tskhinvali, capital of tiny South Ossetia, a province that had broken free of Tbilisi when Tbilisi broke free of Russia. As Ossetians and Russian peacekeepers fell under the Georgian guns, terrified Ossetians fled into Russia.

Saakashvili's blitzkrieg appeared to have triumphed.

Until, that is, Russian armor, on Vladimir Putin's orders, came thundering down the Roki Tunnel into Ossetia, sending Saakashvili's army reeling. The Georgians were driven out of Ossetia and expelled from a second province that had broken free of Tbilisi: Abkhazia.

The Russians then proceeded to bomb Tbilisi, capture Gori, birthplace of Josef Stalin, and bomb Georgian airfields rumored to be the forward bases for the Israelis in any pre-emptive strike on Iran.

The humiliation of Saakashvili was total and brought an enraged and frustrated John McCain running to the microphones.

"Today, we're all Georgians," bawled McCain.

Well, not exactly.

President Bush called Putin's response "disproportionate" and "brutal," but did nothing. Small nations that sucker-punch big powers do not get to dictate when the fisticuffs stop.

What made this war of interest to Americans, however, was that Bush had long sought to bring Georgia into NATO. Only the resistance of Old Europe had prevented it.

And had Georgia been a member of NATO when Saakashvili began his war, U.S. Marines and Special Forces might have been on the way to the Caucasus to confront Russian troops in a part of the world where there is no vital U.S. interest and never has been any U.S. strategic interest whatsoever.

A U.S war with Russia – over Georgia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia – would have been an act of national criminal insanity.

Days later, there came another startling discovery.

McCain foreign-policy adviser Randy Scheunemann had been paid $290,000 by the Saakashvili regime, from January 2007 to March 2008, to get Georgia into NATO, and thus acquire a priceless U.S. war guarantee to fight on Georgia's side in any clash with Russia....

Now it is impossible to believe a senator [Rubio], not a year in office, dreamed this [amendment] up himself. Some foreign agent of Scheunemann's ilk had to have had a role in drafting it.

Bottom line: If it wasn't for Rand Paul to step forward and block the amendment, the United States, at the urging of likely dark forces, would have been obligated to fight Russia in its backyard.

Thank you, Rand Paul.

Rand Paul Confronts John McCain about Sending Americans to Guantanamo Bay

During the debate on the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal 2012 (S.1867), Senator Rand Paul put it straight to Senator McCain (sponsor of the bill): "Under the provisions [of the bill] would it be possible for an American citizen to be declared an enemy combatant and sent to Guantanamo Bay indefinitely?"

Notice in the clip below how McCain doesn't answer the question directly, he just implies that it could be the case and attempts to confuse the issue by discussing those foreigners who have been released from Guantanamo and are now allegedly fighting the United States.

If this is such a great clause in the Act, why isn't McCain willing to stand up for it and say so, rather than ducking the issue?

Rand Paul versus John McCain on the Terrorist Detainee Amendment

Senator Rand Paul has come out swinging against the bill that would define the whole of the United States as a “battlefield” and allow the U.S. Military to arrest American citizens in their own back yard without charge or trial.

Rand and John McCain battled on the Senate floor today over a proposed amendment to the pending defense authorization bill.

Rand argued the amendment, which is cosponsored by McCain, "puts every single American citizen at risk" and suggested that if the amendment passes, "the terrorists have won."

“Should we err today and remove some of the most important checks on state power in the name of fighting terrorism, well then the terrorists have won," he argued, "[D]etaining American citizens without a court trial is not American."

McCain responded by saying that

An individual, no matter who they are, if they pose a threat to the security of the United States of America, should not be allowed to continue that threat. We need to take every stop necessary to prevent that from happening, that’s for the safety and security of the men and women who are out there risking their lives ... in our armed services.

The amendment would technically allow the executive branch discretion on whether a terrorism suspect ought to be tried in civilian courts or the military tribunal system and would allow and arrest without charge.