Ron Paul highlights the Institute for Peace and Prosperity conference where Professor Robert Pape argues the U.S. must stop acting as global policemen, contrasting this with recent unprovoked wars against Iran. The report details how Marjorie Taylor Greene resigned over Trump's digital currency stance and Joe Kent quit his counterterrorism role after deeming the conflict unjustified for American interests. Ultimately, these departures illustrate that a purposeful minority can drive change by refusing to sacrifice principles for political expediency across ideological lines. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: CohereLabs/cohere-transcribe-03-2026, WAV2VEC2_ASR_BASE_960H, sat-12l-sm, script v26.04.01, and large-v3-turbo
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Standing Up for Principles00:04:08
Hope for America.
Last weekend, my Institute for Peace and Prosperity hosted another conference here on the Texas Gulf Coast.
Not only did we have a full house attending the conference, which in a way is the most important thing, but in this era of profound disappointment and disillusionment, we struck a note of optimism, thankfully due to our wonderful lineup of speakers.
The main topic of the conference, titled War is back on the menu, was of course the disastrous decision by the Trump administration to launch an unprovoked war against Iran, both last June and again on February 28th.
Professor Robert Pape from the University of Chicago offered a compelling blueprint to break free of some of the neocon chains that bind us to the Middle East to our own detriment.
Let the states in the region manage their own security, he argued.
It is not our job to be their policemen.
Very importantly, we were fortunate to have had as speakers two individuals who stood up for their principles when putting them aside for expediency and personal gain would have been so much easier.
Former U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Was, in her own words, a general in the MAGA Army.
She dedicated her life and plenty of her own money to the cause of electing Donald Trump because she believed he would put America first, as he had promised.
She watched that cause betrayed, first with the president's support for the tyrannical central bank digital currency, and then with his refusal to release the Epstein files.
Finally, she explained.
After he had dubbed her a traitor for disagreeing with him on these issues.
Constant death threats forced her to resign her seat in the House.
She could have gone along to get along, as most do in Congress.
Instead, she stood up for what she believed.
Likewise, Joe Kent, who was serving as Director of Counterterrorism at the Office of National Intelligence, could have kept quiet.
As he watched another war being launched on a mountain of lies pushed by special interests, he was a highly decorated U.S. combat veteran who held a Senate confirmed position in the administration.
That would have been a golden ticket to any number of future profitable opportunities if he played his cards right.
Instead, he did what was right.
He resigned, writing in a statement that the war was not justified.
In that it was being fought for Israeli rather than American interests.
As could be predicted, Joe suffered the same demonization that Marjorie suffered for standing up for his values and principles.
Their courage in making this sacrifice for truth should inspire all of us, it should give us hope.
My words of encouragement were simple We don't need a majority to change things.
A purposeful minority dedicated to the principles of peace and liberty can move mountains.
We must stay strong and, importantly, stick together and work together across all party and ideological lines.
We must be the big coalition that refuses to sacrifice our principles just as Joe and Marjorie refused to sacrifice theirs.