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2005 Ron Paul Chapter 124
Ron Paul’s Congressional website
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HON.
RON PAUL OF TEXAS
BEFORE THE US HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
December 7, 2005
The Blame Game
2005 Ron Paul 124:1
Our country faces major problems.
No
longer can they remain hidden from the American people.
Most Americans are aware the federal budget is in dismal shape.
Whether it’s Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, or even the
private
pension system, most Americans realize we’re in debt over our heads.
2005 Ron Paul 124:2
The welfare state is unmanageable and severely overextended.
In spite of hopes that supposed reform would restore sound
financing and
provide for all the needs of the people, it’s becoming more apparent
every day
that the entire system of entitlements is in a precarious state and may
well
collapse.
It doesn’t take a
genius to realize that increasing the national debt by over six hundred
billion
dollars per year is not sustainable.
Raising
taxes to make up the shortfall is unacceptable, while continuing to
print the
money needed will only accelerate the erosion of the dollar’s value.
2005 Ron Paul 124:3
Our foreign policy is no less of a threat to us.
Our worldwide military presence and our obsession with remaking
the
entire Middle East frightens a lot of people both here and abroad.
Our role as world policeman and nation builder places undue
burdens on
the American taxpayer.
Our enormous
overseas military expenditures — literally hundreds of billion of
dollars — are
a huge drain on the American economy.
2005 Ron Paul 124:4
All wars invite abuses of civil liberties at home, and the vague
declaration of war
against terrorism is worse than most in this regard.
As our liberties here at home are diminished by the Patriot
Act and national ID card legislation, we succumb to the temptation of
all
empires to neglect habeas corpus, employ torture tactics, and use
secret
imprisonment. These domestic and foreign policy trends reflect a
morally
bankrupt philosophy, devoid of any concern for liberty and the rule of
law.
2005 Ron Paul 124:5
The American people are becoming more aware of the serious crisis this
country
faces.
Their deep concern is
reflected in the current mood in Congress.
The recent debate over Iraq shows the parties are now looking
for someone
to blame for the mess we’re in.
It’s
a high stakes political game.
The
fact that a majority of both parties and their leadership endorsed the
war, and
accept the same approach toward Iran and Syria, does nothing to tone
down the
accusatory nature of the current blame game.
2005 Ron Paul 124:6
The argument in Washington is over tactics, quality of intelligence, war
management, and diplomacy, except for the few who admit that tragic
mistakes
were made and now sincerely want to establish a new course for Iraq.
Thank goodness for those who are willing to reassess and admit
to these
mistakes.
Those of us who have
opposed the war all along welcome them to the cause of peace.
2005 Ron Paul 124:7
If we hope to pursue a more sensible foreign policy, it is imperative that
Congress
face up to its explicit constitutional responsibility to declare war.
It’s easy to condemn the management of a war one endorsed, while
deferring the final decision about whether to deploy troops to the
president.
When Congress accepts and assumes its awesome responsibility to
declare
war, as directed by the Constitution, fewer wars will be fought.
2005 Ron Paul 124:8
Sadly, the acrimonious blame game is motivated by the leadership of both
parties for
the purpose of gaining, or retaining, political power.
It doesn’t approach a true debate over the wisdom, or lack
thereof, of
foreign military interventionism and pre-emptive war.
2005 Ron Paul 124:9
Polls indicate ordinary Americans are becoming uneasy with our prolonged war
in Iraq,
which has no end in sight.
The fact
that no one can define victory precisely, and most American see us
staying in
Iraq for years to come, contribute to the erosion of support for this
war.
Currently 63% of Americans disapprove of the handling of the
war, and 52%
say it’s time to come home.
42%
say we need a foreign policy of minding our own business.
This is very encouraging.
2005 Ron Paul 124:10
The percentages are even higher for the Iraqis.
82% want us to leave, while 67% claim they are less secure with
our
troops there.
Ironically, our
involvement has produced an unusual agreement among the Kurds, Shiites,
and
Sunnis, the three factions at odds with each other.
At the recent 22-member Arab League meeting in Cairo, the
three groups agreed on one issue: they all want foreign troops to leave.
At the end of the meeting an explicit communiqué was
released: “We
demand the withdrawal of foreign forces in accordance with a timetable,
and the
establishment of a national and immediate program for rebuilding the
armed
forces… that will allow them to guard Iraq’s borders and get control of
the
security situation.”
Since the
administration is so enamored with democracy, why
not have a national referendum in Iraq to see if the people want us to
leave?
2005 Ron Paul 124:11
After we left Lebanon in the 1980s, the Arab League was instrumental in
brokering an
end to that country’s 15-year civil war.
Its chances of helping to stop the fighting in Iraq are far
better than
depending on the UN, NATO, or the United States.
This
is a regional dispute that we stirred up but cannot
settle.
The Arab League needs to
assume a lot more responsibility for the mess that our invasion has
caused.
We need to get out of the way and let them solve their own
problems.
2005 Ron Paul 124:12
Remember, once we left Lebanon suicide terrorism stopped and peace finally came.
The same could happen in Iraq.
2005 Ron Paul 124:13
Everyone is talking about the downside of us leaving, and the civil war that
might erupt.
Possibly so, but no one knows with certainty what will happen.
There was no downside when we left Vietnam.
But one thing for sure, after a painful decade of killing in the
1960s,
the killing stopped and no more Americans died once we left.
We now trade with Vietnam and enjoy friendly relations with them.
This was achieved through peaceful means, not military force.
The real question is how many more Americans must be sacrificed
for a
policy that is not working?
Are we
going to fight until we go broke and the American people are
impoverished?
Common sense tells us it’s time to reassess the politics of
military
intervention and not just look for someone to blame for falling once
again into
the trap of a military quagmire.
2005 Ron Paul 124:14
The blame game is a political event, designed to avoid the serious
philosophic
debate over our foreign policy of interventionism.
The mistakes made by both parties in dragging us into an
unwise war are obvious, but the effort to blame one group over the
other
confuses the real issue.
Obviously
Congress failed to meet its constitutional obligation regarding war.
Debate over prewar intelligence elicits
charges of errors,
lies, and complicity.
It is now
argued that those who are critical of the outcome in Iraq are just as
much at
fault, since they too accepted flawed intelligence when deciding to
support the
war.
This charge is leveled at
previous administrations, foreign governments, Members of Congress, and
the
United Nations-- all who made the same mistake of blindly accepting the
prewar
intelligence.
Complicity, errors of
judgment, and malice are hardly an excuse for such a serious commitment
as a
pre-emptive war against a non-existent enemy.
2005 Ron Paul 124:15
Both sides accepted the evidence supposedly justifying the war, evidence
that was not
credible.
No weapons of mass
destruction were found.
Iraq had no
military capabilities. Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein were not allies
(remember, we
were allies of both Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden), and Saddam
Hussein
posed no threat whatsoever to the United States or his neighbors.
2005 Ron Paul 124:16
We hear constantly that we must continue the fight in
Iraq, and possibly in Iran and Syria, because, “It’s better to fight
the
terrorists over there than here.”
Merely
repeating this justification, if it is based on a major analytical
error, cannot
make it so.
All evidence shows that
our presence in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and other Muslim countries benefits
al Qaeda
in its recruiting efforts, especially in its search for suicide
terrorists.
This one fact prompts a rare agreement among all religious and
secular
Muslim factions; namely, that the U.S. should leave all Arab lands.
Denying this will not keep terrorists from
attacking us, it
will do the opposite.
2005 Ron Paul 124:17
The fighting and terrorist attacks are happening overseas because of a
publicly
stated al Qaeda policy that they will go for soft targets-- our allies
whose
citizens object to the war like Spain and Italy.
They
will attack Americans who are more exposed in Iraq.
It is a serious error to conclude that “fighting them over
there”
keeps them from fighting us “over here,” or that we’re winning the war
against terrorism.
As long as our
occupation continues, and American forces continue killing Muslims, the
incentive to attack us will grow.
It
shouldn’t be hard to understand that the responsibility for violence in
Iraq--
even violence between Iraqis-- is blamed on our occupation.
It is more accurate to say, “the longer we fight them over there
the
longer we will be threatened over here.”
2005 Ron Paul 124:18
The final rhetorical refuge for those who defend the war, not yet refuted,
is the
dismissive statement that “the world is better off without Saddam
Hussein.”
It implies no one can question anything we have done because of
this
fact.
Instead of an automatic concession
it should be legitimate,
though politically incorrect, to challenge this disarming assumption.
No one has to like or defend Saddam Hussein to point out we
won’t know
whether the world is better off until someone has taken Saddam
Hussein’s
place.
2005 Ron Paul 124:19
This argument was never used to justify removing murderous dictators with
much more
notoriety than Saddam Hussein, such as our ally Stalin; Pol Pot, whom
we helped
get into power; or Mao Tse Tung.
Certainly
the Soviets, with their bloody history and thousands of nuclear weapons
aimed at
us, were many times over a greater threat to us than Saddam Hussein
ever was.
If containment worked with the Soviets and the Chinese, why is
it assumed
without question that deposing Saddam Hussein is obviously and without
question
a better approach for us than containment?
2005 Ron Paul 124:20
The “we’re all better off without Saddam Hussein” cliché doesn’t
address
the question of whether the 2,100 troops killed or the 20,000 wounded
and sick
troops are better off.
We refuse to
acknowledge the hatred generated by the deaths of tens of thousands of
Iraqi
citizens who are written off as collateral damage.
Are the Middle East and Israel better off with the turmoil
our occupation has generated?
Hardly!
Honesty would have us conclude that conditions in the Middle
East are
worse since the war started: the killing never stops, and the cost is
more than
we can bear-- both in lives and limbs lost and dollars spent.
2005 Ron Paul 124:21
In spite of the potential problems that may or may not come with our
withdrawal,
the greater mistake was going in the first place.
We
need to think more about how to avoid these military
encounters, rather than dwelling on the complications that result when
we meddle
in the affairs of others with no moral or legal authority to do so.
We need less blame game and more reflection about the root cause
of our
aggressive foreign policy.
2005 Ron Paul 124:22
By limiting the debate to technical points over intelligence, strategy,
the number
of troops, and how to get out of the mess, we ignore our continued
policy of
sanctions, threats, and intimidation of Iraq’s neighbors, Iran and
Syria.
Even as Congress pretends to argue about how or when we might
come home,
leaders from both parties continue to support the policy of spreading
the war by
precipitating a crisis with these two countries.
2005 Ron Paul 124:23
The likelihood of agreeing about who deliberately or innocently misled
Congress, the
media, and the American people is virtually nil.
Maybe
historians at a later date will sort out the whole
mess.
The debate over tactics and
diplomacy will go on, but that only serves to distract from the
important issue
of policy.
Few today in Congress
are interested in changing from our current accepted policy of
intervention to
one of strategic independence:
No
nation building, no policing the world, no dangerous alliances.
2005 Ron Paul 124:24
But the results of our latest military incursion into a foreign country
should not
be ignored.
Those who dwell on
pragmatic matters should pay close attention to the results so far.
2005 Ron Paul 124:25
Since March 2003 we have seen:
2005 Ron Paul 124:26
Death and destruction; 2,100 Americans killed and nearly 20,000 sick or
wounded, plus
tens of thousands of Iraqis caught in the crossfire;
2005 Ron Paul 124:27
A Shiite theocracy has been planted;
2005 Ron Paul 124:28
A civil war has erupted;
2005 Ron Paul 124:29
Iran’s arch nemesis, Saddam Hussein, has been removed;
2005 Ron Paul 124:30
Osama bin Laden’s arch nemesis, Saddam Hussein, has been removed;
2005 Ron Paul 124:31
Al Qaeda now operates freely in Iraq, enjoying a fertile training field
not
previously available to them;
2005 Ron Paul 124:32
Suicide terrorism, spurred on by our occupation, has significantly increased;
2005 Ron Paul 124:33
Our military industrial complex thrives in Iraq without competitive bids;
2005 Ron Paul 124:34
True national defense and the voluntary army have been undermined;
2005 Ron Paul 124:35
Personal liberty at home is under attack; assaults on free speech and privacy,
national
ID cards, the Patriot Act, National Security letters, and challenges to
habeas
corpus all have been promoted;
2005 Ron Paul 124:36
Values have changed, with more Americans supporting torture and secret prisons;
2005 Ron Paul 124:37
Domestic strife, as recently reflected in arguments over the war on the House
floor, is
on the upswing;
2005 Ron Paul 124:38
Pre-emptive war has been codified and accepted as legitimate and necessary, a bleak
policy
for our future;
2005 Ron Paul 124:39
The Middle East is far more unstable, and oil supplies are less secure, not
more;
2005 Ron Paul 124:40
Historic relics of civilization protected for thousands of years have been lost
in a
flash while oil wells were secured;
2005 Ron Paul 124:41
U.S. credibility in the world has been severely damaged; and
2005 Ron Paul 124:42
The national debt has increased enormously, and our dependence on China has
increased significantly as our federal government borrows more and more
money.
2005 Ron Paul 124:43
How many more years will it take for civilized people to realize that war has no
economic or political value for the people who fight and pay for it?
Wars are always started by governments, and individual soldiers
on each
side are conditioned to take up arms and travel great distances to
shoot and
kill individuals that never meant them harm.
Both sides drive their people into an hysterical frenzy to
overcome their
natural instinct to live and let live.
False
patriotism is used to embarrass the good-hearted into succumbing to the
wishes
of the financial and other special interests who agitate for war.
2005 Ron Paul 124:44
War reflects the weakness of a civilization that refuses to offer peace as
an
alternative.
2005 Ron Paul 124:45
This does not mean we should isolate ourselves from the world.
On the contrary, we need more rather than less interaction with
our world
neighbors.
We should encourage
travel, foreign commerce, friendship, and exchange of ideas-- this
would far
surpass our misplaced effort to make the world like us through armed
force.
And this can be achieved without increasing the power of the
state or
accepting the notion that some world government is needed to enforce
the rules
of exchange.
Governments should
just get out of the way and let individuals make their own decisions
about how
they want to relate to the world.
2005 Ron Paul 124:46
Defending the country against aggression is a very limited and proper function of
government.
Our military
involvement in the world over the past 60 years has not met this test,
and
we’re paying the price for it.
2005 Ron Paul 124:47
A policy that endorses peace over war, trade over
sanctions, courtesy over arrogance, and liberty over coercion is in the
tradition of the American Constitution and American idealism.
It deserves consideration.
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