2001 Ron Paul 107:1
Mr. PAUL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself
such time as I may consume.
(Mr. PAUL asked and was given permission
to revise and extend his remarks.)
2001 Ron Paul 107:2
Mr. PAUL. Mr. Speaker, first I would
like to start off by thanking the chairman
for having made some changes in
this bill. The bill is not nearly as bad
as it was at the beginning. However, I
obviously cannot support it. But
changing the tone was helpful in talking
about Saddam Hussein versus Iraq,
“Iraq” suggesting the people of Iraq,
who are hardly enemies of the American
people. Saddam Hussein is a different
subject. Also changing the word
“aggression” to “a mounting threat.”
Aggression means that we have to immediately
retaliate, I would suppose.
Even “a mounting threat” is a bit
threatening to me, but at least it is
better and moving in the direction of
less confrontation with a nation 6,000
miles from our shore that I hardly see
as a threat to our national security.
2001 Ron Paul 107:3
One of the reasons why I take an approach
on foreign policy where we are
less involved overseas is mainly because
I feel that the number one obligation
for us in Congress and for the
people of this country is to preserve
liberty and defend it from outside
threats. The authors of this resolution,
I am sure, have the same goals, but,
over the years, I think those goals have
been undermined. We as a Nation are
now probably weaker rather than
stronger and we are more threatened
because of what we do overseas.
2001 Ron Paul 107:4
For instance, just this week, we had
Stinger Missiles fired at our airplanes.
Fortunately, they did not hit our airplanes.
But we paid for those Stinger
Missiles. And this week there was an
attack in India by allies, supposedly, in
Pakistan, who are receiving billions of
dollars from us at the current time.
This vacillation, shifting, on and off,
friends one time, enemies the next
time, this perpetual war seems to me
not to be in the best interests of the
United States.
2001 Ron Paul 107:5
Take, for instance, one of the
whereas’s in this resolution. “Whereas
the Iraq attacked the Islamic Republic
of Iran.” We keep hearing this all the
time. It was horrible. But they were
our allies at the time. We were financing
them, giving them money, helping
them with technology.
2001 Ron Paul 107:6
So I see this as a perfect example of
us always flip-flopping. Not only do we
frequently have those weapons that we
sell and give to support a so-called
friend turn against us, we so often have
the opponents in the wars around the
world fighting each other with our
weapons.
2001 Ron Paul 107:7
My idea of national defense is minding
our own business, being strong, and
making sure our borders are secure.
After 9/11, we had to go to Germany
and ask them for help for AWACS airplanes
to patrol our shores. I understand
our ports are not necessarily secure,
and yet we have Coast Guard cutters
down in Colombia and in the Mediterranean
Sea. I think if we learn anything
it is that we ought to work harder
to protect our country and not make
us so vulnerable, yet we continue along
this way.
2001 Ron Paul 107:8
We criticize the possibility or suggest
the possibility of what might be happening
in Iraq, and, out of frustration,
this amendment came up because there
has been no evidence that Iraq is connected.
Not that Saddam Hussein can
be construed as any type of a good guy,
but there has been no connection, so
there had to be some new reason given
to go into Iraq.
2001 Ron Paul 107:9
I tend to agree with the gentleman
from Illinois (Chairman HYDE) that if
there was evidence, we probably have,
under the authority we have given the
President, to go in to Iraq. But that is
not what we are talking about. We are
talking about the perpetuation, the
continuation of the Persian Gulf War,
which at the time was designed as a
fight for our oil. I think that is what
this is all about.
2001 Ron Paul 107:10
Its been suggested that the anthrax
came from Iraq. The mounting evidence
today, sadly, suggests that it
may well be coming from our CIA. Here
we are almost ready to go to war
against Iraq at the suggestion that our
carelessness and our development of
anthrax here in this country may have
been a contributing factor to this anthrax
being spread in this country.
2001 Ron Paul 107:11
It is suggested that it will be easy to
overtake Iraq because we have had this
tremendous success in Afghanistan,
and we will have this uprising and the
Kurds will be a reliable ally in this uprising.
The plain truth is, the Kurds
will not be the salvation of our securing
Iraq. As a matter of fact, most of
our allies, the Turks, although they
may be bought and allow us to use
their bases, they are very nervous
about this plan to invade Iraq.
2001 Ron Paul 107:12
The whole idea that Iraq is the one
that we have to be addressing, when
you look at the problems throughout
the world, when you look at what is
happening in Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia
has not cooperated, and yet we
have troops on their soil antagonizing
the people over there, and at the same
time, people are saying that all we
have to do is invade Iraq, get rid of
Saddam Hussein, and everything is
going to be okay.
2001 Ron Paul 107:13
Another “whereas,” mentioning UN
Resolution 678 it was declared that
under Resolution 687, we have authority
to go back in today. That is not
true. As a matter of fact, 687 gave us
the authority to get Saddam Hussein
to withdraw from Kuwait. That does
not mean that we can perpetuate war
forever under that resolution.
2001 Ron Paul 107:14
As a matter of fact, if you want to go
into Iraq and follow the rules and you
are pretending you are following the
rules, you ought to do a couple of
things. If you believe in the United Nations,
you have to go back to the
United Nations, if you believe in the
rule of law. Also you have to answer
the question, why does this resolution
need to be enforced versus other resolutions
that have never been enforced?
Why is it assumed that the United
States has to enforce UN resolutions?
When did it come to the point where
the UN dictates foreign policy to us?
2001 Ron Paul 107:15
So, there are a lot of questions to answer
about this desire to immediately
go into Iraq. I think it actually poses a
threat to our security, more than it
helps us. So I am suggesting that we go
more cautiously.
2001 Ron Paul 107:16
I am glad this resolution has been
toned down a little bit, but it does represent
those individuals who think
that we should be at war with Iraq
today, and I disagree with that.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of
my time.
