Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Chairman, I am
pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman
from Texas (Mr. PAUL).
(Mr. PAUL asked and was given permission
to revise and extend his remarks.)
1999 Ron Paul 17:1 Mr. PAUL.
Mr. Chairman, I want to
thank the leadership for allowing this
debate to come to the floor. I have, for
quite a few weeks, advocated that we
talk about this and have urge that the
troops never be sent to Kosovo without
our consent. I do believe, though, that
the process here is less than perfect.
The fact that we are talking about a
House Concurrent Resolution at the
same time authorizing troop deployment
raises serious questions.
1999 Ron Paul 17:2 Since World War II we have not been
diligent here in the Congress to protect
our prerogatives with respect to the
declaration of war. Korean and Vietnam
wars were fought without a declaration
of war. And these wars were
not won.
1999 Ron Paul 17:3 Since 1973, since the War Powers Resolution
was passed, we have further undermined
the authority of the Congress
and delivered more authority to the
President because the resolution essentially
has given the President more
power to wage war up to 90 days without
the Congress granting authority. It
is to our credit at least that we are
bringing this matter up at this particular
time.
1999 Ron Paul 17:4 We must remember that there are
various things involved here. First,
whether or not we should be the world
policeman. That answer should be easy.
We should not be. It costs a lot of
money to do what we are doing, and it
undermines our military strength. So
we should consider that.
1999 Ron Paul 17:5 We should consider the law and the
process in the War Powers Resolution
and just exactly how we grant authority
to the President to wage war. We
should be more concerned about the
Constitution and how we should give
this authority. We should be concerned
about this procedure.
1999 Ron Paul 17:6 The bigger question here, however, is
if we vote for this, and I strongly oppose
passing this, because if we vote for
this, we authorize the moving of troops
into a dangerous area. We should ask
ourselves, if we are willing to vote for
this resolution; are we ourselves willing
to go to Kosovo and expose our
lives on the front lines? Are we willing
to send our children or our grandchildren;
to not only be exposed to the
danger, with the pretext we are going
to save the world, but with the idea
that we may lose our life? That is what
we have to consider.
