The Book of Ron Paul
1998 Ron Paul Chapter 108

Iraq — Part 2

5 October 1998

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The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. MILLER of Florida). Who seeks to yield time?

1998 Ron Paul 108:1
Mr. PAUL. How much time do I have remaining?

1998 Ron Paul 108:2
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. MILLER of Florida). The gentleman from Texas (Mr. PAUL) has 10 minutes remaining. The gentleman from New York (Mr. GILMAN) has 6 1/2 minutes remaining, and the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. HAMILTON) has 2 minutes remaining. The gentleman from Texas.

1998 Ron Paul 108:3

Mr. PAUL. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The gentleman from Indiana makes some very good points indicating that he is not convinced this is workable. So, back to the practicality of the bill, even though one might argue there’s a lot of good intentions here, even a Member that is supporting the bill is very uncertain whether it’s workable.

1998 Ron Paul 108:4
In some ways, even if it is workable, it’s going to be working against us and working against the United States and working against the taxpayers of this country.

1998 Ron Paul 108:5
But I would also like to challenge the statement that this does not change policy, because on section 3, it says it should be the policy of the United States to seek to remove the regime headed by Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq and to promote the emergence of a democratic government to replace that regime.

1998 Ron Paul 108:6
Now, that sounds pretty clear to me. Matter of fact, I think it sounds so clear that it contradicts U.S. law. How do you remove somebody without killing him? Is it just because we don’t use our own CIA to bump him off that we’re not morally and legally responsible? We will be.

1998 Ron Paul 108:7
So we’re talking about killing Saddam Hussein, a ruthless dictator. But how many ruthless dictators do we have? We have plenty. So how many more should we go after?

1998 Ron Paul 108:8
So the real question is, why at this particular time, why should we give our President more authority to wage war? He has way too much authority already, if the President can drop bombs when he pleases, and this of course has occurred not only in this administration but in the administrations of the 1980s as well where bombs were dropped to make some points. But generally speaking, the points aren’t well made. They usually come back to haunt us.

1998 Ron Paul 108:9
And this is more or less what has happened. This is part of a policy that we have been following for quite a few decades. And yet, the problems continue to emerge.

1998 Ron Paul 108:10
We can hardly be sympathetic to the Kurds who are being punished by the Iraqis at the same time we’re paying the Turks to do the same thing to the Kurds. So there is something awful inconsistent about this.

1998 Ron Paul 108:11
There is nothing wrong with a policy of trying to maintain friendship with people, trying to trade with people and influence them that way rather than saying, if you don’t do exactly as we tell you, we are going to bomb you.

1998 Ron Paul 108:12
And this is a policy we have been following for way too long. It costs a lot of money. It costs a lot of respect for law because, technically, it’s not legal. Waging war should only occur when the Congress and the people decide this. But to casually give more and more authority to the President to do this and encourage him to bump off dictators is a dangerous precedent to set.

1998 Ron Paul 108:13
I think there is no doubt in my mind what is best for the United States. We should not pass this resolution. If there needs to be more efforts made, do it some other way. But, obviously, this is not a good way to do it. It is sacrificing the principle of law. It’s sacrificing the Constitution. It’s sacrificing the practicalities of even the people who are supporting it aren’t quite sure it is going to work.

1998 Ron Paul 108:14
So I would say give serious consideration to not supporting this bill. We need a “no” vote on this.

1998 Ron Paul 108:15
And I reserve the balance of my time.

Note:

1998 Ron Paul 108:10
So there is something awful inconsistent about this probably should be So there is something awfully inconsistent about this.



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