The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a
previous order of the House, the gentleman
from Texas (Mr. PAUL) is recognized
for 5 minutes.
2009 Ron Paul 21:1
Mr. PAUL. Mr. Speaker, the end of
the war is not near. I might ask, are
the troops coming home from Iraq as
promised? Not quite. Sixteen months is
too quick, so the plan now is to do it in
34 months. The administration claims
all the troops will be out of Iraq by the
end of 2011. Sure they will.
2009 Ron Paul 21:2
Were told that 50,000 U.S. troops will
still be in Iraq in August of 2010, and
were supposed to cheer. Were told
that they wont be combat troops, so
were to believe that means they wont
be exposed to any danger. If they are
non-combat troops, does that mean
they are bureaucrats, policemen,
teachers or soldiers without weapons?
This will hardly satisfy the Iraqis, who
resent any foreign troops at all in their
country. A U.S. puppet government
protected by 50,000 American soldiers is
not the road to peace.
2009 Ron Paul 21:3
Will the Iranian-friendly Shiite majority
not be motivated to take advantage
of the instability we have created?
2009 Ron Paul 21:4
Will the 100,000 Sunni militants we
arm and subsidize continue to obey our
wishes? It sounds to me like a powder
keg exists with the indecisiveness of
our Iraqi policy.
2009 Ron Paul 21:5
There is no intention to close the
dozens of military bases that now
exist. The worlds biggest embassy will
remain in Baghdad and incite continued
resentment toward the American
occupation. Our soldiers will remain
easy targets of the rightfully angry nationalists.
2009 Ron Paul 21:6
Our presence will serve as an incentive
for al Qaeda to grow in numbers
and motivate more suicide bombers. An
indefinite presence, whether in Iraq,
Afghanistan, or Pakistan, will continue
to drain our financial resources,
undermine our national defense, demoralize
our military and exacerbate
our financial crisis. All this will be
welcomed by Osama Bin Laden, just as
he planned it. Its actually more than
he had hoped for.
2009 Ron Paul 21:7
More likely the outcome will be that
greater than 50,000 Americans will be
in Iraq in August of 2010, especially
when the contractors are counted. Violence
will accelerate. We will be an occupier
at the end of 2011, and we will
remain a pariah in the Middle East.
2009 Ron Paul 21:8
The war in Afghanistan and Pakistan
will be much bigger, unless the dollar
follows the path of the dollar-based
world financial system and collapses
into runaway inflation. In this case,
the laws of economics and the realities
of history will prove superior to the
madness of maintaining a world empire
financed by scraps of paper.
2009 Ron Paul 21:9
Our military prowess, backed by a
nuclear arsenal, will not suffice in
overcoming the tragedy of a currency
crisis. Soviet nukes did not preserve its
empire or the communist economy.
2009 Ron Paul 21:10
This crisis demands that we quickly
come to our senses and reject the foreign
policy of interventionism. Neither
credit coming from a Federal Reserve
computer nor dollars coming from a
printing press can bail us out of this
mess. Only the rule of law, commodity
money and liberty can do that.
2009 Ron Paul 21:11
Mr. Speaker, lets consider reinstating
the Constitution before its too
late.