Libertarian Presidential Candidate Bob Barr... |
GLENN: All right. We have a couple of things going on. I wanted to talk to Bob Barr about Georgia and what we would do on Georgia and this is where the libertarians always lose me but I don't want to get into another? ?man, we don't need anything else stacked on but what do we do to make sure that we don't let Russia just run rough shod over everything. Thought I'd get a libertarian point of view from possible Barr here in just a few minutes. Real quick, an update? We don't have Sean yet? Then hold him until the end of the show. We have one of the head guys of the national border patrol council and there's been a shooting from another border agent of an illegal immigrants through the buttocks. I wonder if we're going to throw this border agent in jail as well. We'll get another update on that.
Bob, I appreciate you joining me, sir. I'm kind of in a quandary here. I don't know exactly what to do and I find myself becoming more and more libertarian every day because I just don't see us solving any of our problems unless we solve our problems here at home first, which is spending out of control, you know, getting the dollar back on track and then also going for our own energy. But how do we solve this one as a libertarian, Bob? How do we solve the Georgia situation without engaging and really getting ourselves wrapped up into a war with Russia?
BARR: First of all, it's great to be back with you, Glenn, and let me tell you? Response to this malady that you have, you find yourself more libertarian, don't fight it.
GLENN: No, I'm not fighting it.
BARR: Just go with the flow. Your instincts are correct. We need to get our house in order. This is the 73rd anniversary today of Social Security, the greatest Ponzi scheme in the history of our country. We put out and we'll certainly send it to your folks an extensive Social Security plan that gets us out of this entire situation and moves the country dramatically to individual accounts. So we do need to get our house in order but dealing with situations overseas like that in Georgia should not be reduced to sound bites like Senator McCain saying, oh, we're all Georgians now, you know, or because he knows Saakashvili, he knows he's a good guy or what not. This is a very complex situation and one thing we do not need to do is rush over there and start getting involved ourselves.
GLENN: Hang on just a second. Wait a minute. Hang on. Do you know Saakashvili?
CALLER: I've never looked into his eyes and been seduced by him.
GLENN: I'm not asking that. I'm asking you are you up on what Georgia is, what Georgia means, what they have conquered? I mean, these guys are a true Republic and have been hassled every step of the way and we're trying to make sure that there's not a stranglehold of oil between Iran and Russia right now. So they do play a critical role in not only, you know, the security of Europe but also a critical role in the economic or energy security of the world.
BARR: And that's why, Glenn, it's so important as you do but so few of our leaders in Washington to look at the big picture. It isn't responsible just to look at Georgia.
GLENN: Yes.
BARR: There's a lot more there simply than just the Georgia Republic. They have part of the semi autonomous regions in which Georgia exerts pretty brutal methods there, the same as the Russians do. So, you know, it's not the one side is pure and one side isn't. And we also have to look at this in the broader context of Iran. Since that pipeline does indeed, as you just indicate, come through Georgia, we have to look at a much broader picture. Which I'm not sure that Senator McCain is doing here.
GLENN: Okay.
BARR: But I don't think that we need to become directly involved here. We need to be aware of it. We need to be supportive. We need to be talking with both sides, including the Russians. And we have taken very much of a sort of hands off approach to Russia over the last several years which now is sort of coming back to bite us where we don't want to be bitten.
GLENN: So tell me as President of the United States, Bob Barr, the libertarian, would today do? ?what would your plan be today on Georgia?
BARR: The plan today would be to talk directly with both sides to tell the Russians, look, you may not care about whether you come? ?remain in the G8 or not, you may bluster about not caring whether you are admitted into the OECD or not but the fact of the matter is you want to be. This is, a lot of this is about respect. You need to be involved in these efforts, you know. So let's get away from this blustering. And as long as you understand that there are not going to be repressive measures taken by the Georgians against these two semi autonomous regions, there's no need for you to be directly involved here militarily. I don't think they will. They have made their point. A lot of this is making their point, but President Barr would not order U.S. involvement. I don't think it's wise right now even to be sending direct humanitarian aid. Do I support humanitarian relief efforts, yes. Sending on direct U.S. transports, no, I don't think that is wise.
GLENN: So we took, yesterday we took control of the airports and the ports. You wouldn't do that, either?
BARR: No, I don't think that's? ?I don't think that's in our best interests.
GLENN: You? ?
BARR: I think that there are ways to get the aid in there, but it's just like waving a red flag in front of a situation where our interests are not directly involved. They certainly are incorrectly through the oil pipeline and we want to encourage Democratic replication anywhere in the world but were our interests directly affected right now between what's going on between Russia and Georgia? I don't think so.
GLENN: Aren't they principles of freedom and free markets and sovereignty, aren't those important principles that require more than just, hey, you two knock it off and I want to talk to both of you. You seem to be withdrawing entirely and shouldn't the? ?shouldn't NATO offer, you know, what we've offered Israel and Japan and even Pakistan, that you're not a member of? ?an attack on you is not an attack on us but we will help you every way that we can. Opening up the NATO door. Shouldn't the countries of the West that understand human rights and freedom in a much different way, shouldn't we stand together against things like this?
BARR: Well, we should but here again I don't think that Georgia has entirely clean hands here, Glenn. Plus the fact my concern for freedom and free markets is more here in the United States, my concern is why did we just pass a housing bailout bill that certainly does not move us in the direction of freeing up housing markets in this country? It increases government control. But I think we need overseas, yes, it's important for us to foster democracy and free trade and representative government, but I don't think that means simply stepping in and aiding militarily or directly in some other way the Georgia regime because they apparently? ?and I've seen some pretty good evidence on this? ?have been involved in some fairly repressive violent measures against the breakaway provinces.
GLENN: Bob, we'll talk to you again.