Mr. SPENCE. Mr. Speaker, I 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 21:1 Mr. PAUL.
Mr. Chairman, I want to
thank the committee as well as our
leadership for bringing a resolution to
the floor that is one that I can support.
It is supporting of the troops but it
does not go that one step further to
rubber-stamp a foreign policy that is
very questionable, so I appreciate that
very much.
1999 Ron Paul 21:2 But in another sense, I think it is
awful strange that every time we do
find our troops in harm’s way that we
need to come to the House floor to reassure
ourselves that we support the
troops. I have never been challenged,
and I take controversial votes on occasion,
and I have never seen another
Member challenge anybody as being
unpatriotic and not supportive of our
troops. So it sort of bewilders me a little
bit that we always have to say, “We
support the troops.” I think that
should go without saying.
1999 Ron Paul 21:3 Nevertheless, we do have this resolution
on the floor, and I will support it.
But I just wonder why that occurs,
that we feel compelled to do so. I think
sometimes it is because we have not
met up to our responsibilities, because
we have allowed our troops to be placed
in harm’s way, and usually in an improper
manner. We have not done this
properly according to the Constitution.
The President did not get permission
from the House and the Senate. We
may have a little bit of a guilt feeling
about having these troops placed in
harm’s way without the proper permission,
and, therefore, we have to reassure
ourselves that we are taking care
of the troops.
1999 Ron Paul 21:4 Now, if we really want to support our
troops, I think we would defend the
sovereignty of this country, we should
provide for a strong national defense
and we certainly should avoid putting
our troops in harm’s way. The real
question that comes up is by putting
the troops in this region right now, we
are invading the sovereignty of a nation
which is very questionable. This is
not done very often. Yet Serbia is a
sovereign nation. They are involved in
a civil war, and there are bad guys on
both sides. For us here in the Congress
to decide who the good guys and who
the bad guys are is not possible, nor is
it our job.
Note:
1999 Ron Paul 21:2
Ungrammatical I think it is awful strange probably should be
I think it is awfully strange.
