The SPEAKER pro tempore. For what purpose does the gentleman from Texas rise?
1998 Ron Paul 11:1
Mr. PAUL.
I ask unanimous consent to address the House for 5 minutes.
1998 Ron Paul 11:2
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection. The gentleman may proceed.
1998 Ron Paul 11:3
Mr. PAUL.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Obviously, I
am not in the leadership; I do not
speak for the leadership. But I do hope
that I speak for a lot of people in
America and other Members of Congress
who may feel differently. I equally
condemn the horrors going on in the
country of Iraq. I have no desire at all
to defend Hussein. And I rise, though, to
just urge some caution on what we do.
1998 Ron Paul 11:4
I have a problem with the procedure,
which we are pursuing, that we are
condoning, encouraging and literally
paying for a program which permits
the President to go and bomb another
nation. There was a time in our history
when bombing another country, when
that country had not attacked us, was
an act of war. But today we do this
rather casually.
1998 Ron Paul 11:5
Morally, the only justifiable war is a
war of defense, a war when our national
security is threatened. A legal
war in this country is one that is declared
by the Congress acting for the
people.
1998 Ron Paul 11:6
We have not declared a war. If we had
a declared war even once since World
War II, possibly we would have fought
for victory. Instead, we get involved
too carelessly and we don’t fight to
victory, and maybe that’s why we’re
standing here today debating the consequence
of the Persian Gulf war because
we really did not achieve victory
and the war continues.
1998 Ron Paul 11:7
It is argued that the legislation
passed in 1990 gives legitimacy for the
President to pursue this adventure, but
this really contradicts everything intended
by the founders of this country
that we could literally pass legislation
which was not a declaration of war and
to allow it to exist in perpetuity. And
here it is 7 or 8 years later, and we’re
going to use legislation passed by Congress. Very few of us were even in that
Congress at that time that are in the
current Congress, but they want to use
that.
1998 Ron Paul 11:8
Also a contradiction to our established
form of government is the fact
that that legislation was passed more
or less to rubber-stamp a U.N. resolution. So I think those are terms that
are not justifiable under our system of
law, and I call my colleagues’ attention
to this because this is very serious.
1998 Ron Paul 11:9
I do not care more about military
than those who would bomb; they have
just as much concern as I have. But I
am concerned about the rule of law,
and obviously, I’m concerned about
consequences that are unforeseen, and
there could be many.
1998 Ron Paul 11:10
I’m worried that we don’t have allied
support, and everybody recognizes
that now. There’s very few neighbors
of Saddam Hussein who are very anxious
for us to do this. So that should
cause some reservation.
1998 Ron Paul 11:11
Also the military strategy here is
questionable. Exactly what are we
going to try to achieve? Are we going
to try to literally destroy all the weapons,
or are we going to try to destroy
him? Are we just going to bomb people
where maybe innocent people will
killed? The long-term military strategy
has not been spelled out, and I
have a concern for that.
1998 Ron Paul 11:12
Also we’re not doing real well on
the P.R. front because just today on
the Reuters wire line there was a report
that came out of a television program
in Britain, which is rather frightening. Although I have criticized our
policy of the 1980s, because during the
1980s we were obviously allies of Saddam
Hussein, but the report on British
television now say that both the American
Government, both the U.S. Government
and the British Government
participated and they have the documents,
U.S. documents, that document,
that say that we did participate in
sales of biological weapons to Saddam
Hussein, which points out an inconsistency. And I guess all governments have
the right to change their mind, but I
still think that should caution us in
what we do.
1998 Ron Paul 11:13
Nothing is going to happen to the
world. Saddam Hussein has not threatened
his neighbors since the Persian
Gulf war, and surely before we get back
in 10 days this is unnecessary.
1998 Ron Paul 11:14
The other side of the aisle suggests
that we have a full debate and a resolution
in 10 days after we come back. That certainly makes a lot of sense to
me. I think at this point to condone
and endorse and encourage the President
to do something at this late hour
when there is essentially no one here in
the Chambers, I do not think this is a
good way to casually step into something
that could be rather dangerous.
1998 Ron Paul 11:15
The resolutions that have been talked
about ironically are quite similar to
the resolution passed in the 1960s that
got us further involved in Vietnam.
1998 Ron Paul 11:16
So, of all sincerity, I come here asking
all Members to be cautious and for
the President not to move too hastily.
1998 Ron Paul 11:11
Where Ron Paul says, innocent people will killed he probably meant, innocent people will be killed and that is how he is quoted in CongressionalRecord. Listen to the C-Span clip at 17:17:23 local time.
1998 Ron Paul 11:12
Where Ron Paul says the report on British television now say, CongressionalRecord quotes him as saying the reports on British television now says. Perhaps he should have said, the report on British television now says, as he was talking about one report.
