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.
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.
