MUSCATINE, Iowa (AP) _ It’s the price Ron Paul is paying for being at or near the top of the polls in Iowa as the state’s caucuses approach. He’s being targeted today by several of his GOP rivals, including Michele Bachmann — who says Paul would be “dangerous as president” because of his hands-off views on national security. Paul has said the U.S. has no business bombing Iran to keep it from getting a nuclear weapon. Mitt Romney told an audience in eastern Iowa that one of his rivals “thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a nuclear weapon.” And Rick Perry said voters don’t have to support someone “who will allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon to wipe Israel off the face of the earth.”
NEWTON, Iowa (AP) _ Republican presidential contender Ron Paul is back in Iowa, running strongly in the polls and questioning why U.S. troops are in Korea and other parts of the world. In an appearance Wednesday in Newton, Paul strongly suggested U.S. forces be withdrawn from South Korea, Japan and Germany, and made the audience laugh when he questioned President Barack Obama’s decision to send Marines to Australia. The 76-year-old Paul said American troops have been in Korea since he was in high school. He omitted any mention of the death of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Il and the uncertainty it’s causing in Asia. Obama’s recent announcement that some Marines will be stationed in Australia was seen as a signal to China that the U.S. intends to maintain a presence in the Pacific.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)