Tillmann - What If? (Inspired by Ron Paul)

Dedicated to Dr. Ron Paul as this song is in his own words.

Lyrics:

What if our foreign policy of the past century is deeply flawed
and has not served our national security interest?

What if we wake up one day
and realize that the terrorist threat
is the predictable consequence of our meddling in the affairs of others,
and has nothing to do with us being free and prosperous?

What if propping up repressive regimes in the Middle East
endangers both the United States and Israel?
What if occupying countries like Iraq and Afghanistan and bombing Pakistan
is directly related to the hatred directed toward us?

What if someday it dawns on us that losing
over 5,000 American military personnel in the Middle East since 9/11
is not a fair tradeoff with the loss of nearly 3,000 American citizens
no matter how many Iraqi, Pakistanian, Afghan people are killed or displaced?

What if we finally decide that torture,
even if called "enhanced interrogation technique",
is self-destructive and produces no useful information
and that contracting it out to a third world nation is just as evil?

Chorus:

What if a military draft is being planned for
for the wars that would spread if our foreign policy is not changed?

What if Christianity actually teaches peace
and not preventive wars of aggression?

What if it is finally realized that war and military spending
is always destructive to the economy?

What if diplomacy is found to be superior
to bombs and bribes in protecting America?

What if the American people learned the truth?

What if we as a nation came to realize
that the quest for empire eventually destroys all great nations?

-End Chorus-

What if all war-time spending
is paid for through the deceitful
and evil process of inflating and borrowing?

What if we finally see
that war-time conditions always
undermine personal liberty?

What if Conservatives who preach small government
wake up and realize that our interventionist foreign policy
provides the greatest incentive to expand the government?

What if Conservatives understood once again
that their only logical position is to reject
military intervention and managing an empire throughout the world?

What if the American people woke up and understood
that the official reasons for going to war
are almost always based on lies
and promoted by war propaganda in order to serve special interests?

-Chorus-

What if war in preparation for war
is a racket serving the special interests?

What if the American people learned the truth,
that our foreign policy has nothing to do with national security,
that it never changes from one administration to the next?

What if we wake up one day and realize that the terrorist threat
is the predictable consequence of our meddling in the affairs of others,
and has nothing to do with us being free and prosperous?

What if President Obama is completely wrong about Afghanistan
and it turns out worse than Iraq and Vietnam put together?

What if war in preparation for war is a racket serving the special interests?

-Chorus-

What happens if my concerns are completely unfounded?

Nothing!

But what happens if my concerns are justified and ignored?

Nothing good!

And I yield back the balance of my time!

FOOTAGE:

Technicolor for Industrial Films (ca 1949)
http://archive.org/details/Technico1949
Creative Commons license: Public Domain

Countdown Leader: Technicolor Corporation (1960)
http://archive.org/details/Countdow1960
Creative Commons license: Public Domain

Atomic Bomb Blast Effects (1959)
http://archive.org/details/0707_Atomic_Bomb_Blast_Effects
Creative Commons license: Public Domain Mark 1.0

Target Nevada (1951)
http://archive.org/details/TargetNevada
Creative Commons license: Public Domain Mark 1.0

The Supreme International Crime = American Wars of Aggression
http://archive.org/details/ZGraphix-TheSupremeInternationalCrimeAmericanWarsOfAggression397
Creative Commons license: Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0

WAR SUCKS (2006)
http://archive.org/details/WAR_SUCKS_2006
Creative Commons license: Public Domain

Star-Spangled Banner, The (Version II) (ca. 1940s)
http://archive.org/details/StarSpan1940
Creative Commons license: Public Domain

The Fed: Our Nation's Central Bank (1990)
http://archive.org/details/gov.frb.sf.thefed
Creative Commons license: Public Domain

Directed, Produced, and Music by Jason Tillmann
Words from Ron Paul's "What If?" speech 2/12/09