When are the neocons and the hawks going to stop getting us into more trouble, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews asked Ron Paul during an appearance on Hardball. “Well I wish they’d look at reason and look at what is happening,” replied Paul, but “I think it’s unfortunately going to stop when we go broke and there’s nothing left and then the people will find out that it is a total failure.”

The other consequence of the constant wars the US is engaged in, added Paul, is that eventually the wars get turned inward against the American people. And that’s why we have this attack on civil liberties.

“But I concentrate on foreign policy in my new book, he adds, because “these wars are needless, they are immoral, they are unconstitutional, and they hurt us.”

Paul and Matthews discuss the “Giuliani Moment” in Ron Paul’s 2008 run. Paul points out that while many said his campaign was finished because of his discussion of blowback in the debate, in fact from that moment his candidacy actually took off and it was Giuliani who was all but finished.

Chris Matthews finishes the interview telling his audience that if they like the way this man is thinking, his new book is titled Swords into Plowshares.

Watch the whole interview here:

Reprinted with permission from the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.