Former Rep. Ron Paul broadly claimed Thursday that "all the wars have been based on lies" during an interview on MSNBC's Now With Alex Wagner, adding that many deceptions would eventually be found in the proposed military strikes in Syria.
Paul also said this latest move in Syria would be part of a "March to Tehran" and eventual takeover of Iran:
PAUL: We need more openness in government, more privacy with the people and we need to just come home, and not have this conspiracy of our government to run all these wars in all of these -- all the wars have been based on lies. We haven't proven any lies yet from this administration. They claim they're not going to make the mistake that Bush made about the lies. But, believe me, there's going to be found many, many deceptions, and the biggest deception is that we need to be there for national --
WAGNER: Dr. Paul, I have to interrupt you. You're saying there are going to be many deceptions found, but you just admitted before that we haven't seen any lies from this administration. Don't you think that's sort of irresponsible?
PAUL: Well, I think you need to repeat that again, because I missed a little bit of that. Say that again, please?
WAGNER: You contended that we haven't seen lies from this administration, but then went on to say we are sure to see deceptions come from this administration. Until you have seen deceptions or have evidence of lies, is it not irresponsible to sort of stoke the flames of distrust for this government?
PAUL: Well, I'm going by history, and I didn't get to finish that sentence before when I was answering that, because the real deception, the grand deception is that we're doing this for national security. That is so bizarre. And at the same time, we fight these wars, we bankrupt our countries, we make more enemies, and we ignore the fact that we use drones to kill kids, and then we're going in there because some gas passed and 100,000 people were killed and they say 'Oh, Assad killed them all.' Today, I saw this horrendous picture of the rebels, you know, murdering in cold blood, you know, some of the Syrians that they had captured. So, yes, there's a lot of deception going on, and this gives them license at the same time our greatest threat is are our liberties here at home. Our first amendment rights. Our fourth amendment rights. That is where the real concern is and we're supposed to be concentrating on invading another country. And quite frankly, if they were honest with us, some of the neocons are more honest with us on this, and it's the march to Tehran. This is all to do with getting Iran and taking that country over, and we've been doing that since 1953. And people ask, 'Why do they dislike us?'