2002 Ron Paul 82:1
Mr. PAUL. Madam Speaker, I want
to start my 5 minutes with a quote
from Jefferson. Jefferson said, “No
country perhaps was ever so thoroughly
against war as ours.” These dispositions
pervade every description of
its citizens, whether in or out of office.
2002 Ron Paul 82:2
We love and we value peace and we
know its blessings from experience.
2002 Ron Paul 82:3
We need this sentiment renewed in
this Congress in order to avoid a needless
war that offers us nothing but
trouble. Congress must deal with this
serious matter of whether or not we go
to war. I believe it would be a mistake
with the information that is available
to us today. I do not see any reason
whatsoever to take young men and
young women and send them 6,000
miles off to a land to attack a country
that has not committed any aggression
against this country. I believe it would
be a serious mistake for various reasons.
2002 Ron Paul 82:4
First, it is a practical reason. There
is no practical defense for this. Our
military now has been weakened over
the last decade, and actually when we
go into Iraq, as we may well do, we will
weaken our ability to defend our country.
We do not enhance our defense by
initiating this war.
2002 Ron Paul 82:5
Besides, it is impractical because of
unintended consequences which none of
us know about and what might come.
We do not know exactly how long this
will last. It could be a six-day war, a
six-month war or six years or even
longer. It could be very impractical by
going to war.
2002 Ron Paul 82:6
There is a military reason for not
going to war. We ought to just listen to
the generals and the other military experts
that are now advising us there is
not a good reason to go to war, possibly
even start World War III some have
suggested. They claim our troops have
been spread too thinly around the
world, and it is not a good military
matter to go into war today.
2002 Ron Paul 82:7
There is a constitutional argument
and a constitutional mistake that
could be made. If we once again go to
war, as we have done on so many occasions
since World War II, without a
clear declaration of war and a clear
goal of victory, a haphazard way of
slipping into war by Executive Order
or, heaven forbid, getting permission
from the United Nations makes it so
that it is almost inevitable that true
victory will not come.
2002 Ron Paul 82:8
So we should look at this in a very
constitutional fashion. We in the Congress
should assume our responsibility
because war is declared by Congress,
not by a President and not by a U.N.
2002 Ron Paul 82:9
This is a very important matter, and
I am delighted to hear that there will
be hearings and discussion on this matter.
I am certainly arguing the case
that we should have a balanced approach.
We have already had some
hearings in the other body, and we
heard only one side of why we must do
this, but if we have true hearings, we
best have a debate and evidence on
both sides of this matter rather than
just getting one side up and saying why
we must do this.
2002 Ron Paul 82:10
Actually there are even good political
reasons for not going into this battle.
War is not popular. It may be popular
for the short run when there seems
to be an immediate victory and everyone
is gloating over the victory, but
war is not popular. People get killed
and body bags end up coming back.
War is very unpopular, and it is not the
politically smart thing to do.
2002 Ron Paul 82:11
There are economic reasons that we
must be careful for. We can make serious
economic mistakes. It is estimated
that this venture into Iraq may well
cost over a hundred billion dollars. Our
national debt right now is increasing
at a rate of over $450 billion and we are
talking about spending another hundred
billion dollars on an adventure
that we do not know what the outcome
will be and how long this will last?
What will happen to oil prices? What
will happen to the recession that we
are in? What is going to happen to the
deficit? All kinds of economic ramification.
So we better not make the mistake
of going into something that really
we have no business getting into.
2002 Ron Paul 82:12
There is a diplomatic reason for not
going. There could be serious diplomatic
mistakes made. All the Arab nations
nearby and adjacent to Iraq object
to it and do not endorse what we
plan and insist that we might be doing,
and none of the European allies are
anxious for this to happen. So diplomatically
we are way off on doing
this.
2002 Ron Paul 82:13
I hope we take a second thought and
be very cautious in what we do.
