Mr. CAMPBELL. 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 34:1
Mr. PAUL.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the
gentleman for yielding me time.
Mr. Speaker, there have clearly been
set two goals among a group of us. We
have been striving to make sure this
Congress follows procedure, that is, if
we go to war, that we do it properly. It
is pretty difficult to achieve this, especially
when a president is willing to go
to war and then we have to do this as
a second thought. I am pleased that, at
least today, we are trying to catch up
on this. The second issue is whether it
is wise to go to war.
1999 Ron Paul 34:2 Certainly, under these circumstances,
I think it is very unwise
for the American people to go to war at
this time. The Serbs have done nothing
to us, and we should not be over there
perpetuating a war.
1999 Ron Paul 34:3 Our problem has been that we are
trying to accommodate at least a half
century of a policy which is interventionism
at will by our presidents. We
have become the policemen of the
world. As long as we endorse that policy,
we will have a difficulty with the
subject we are dealing with today.
1999 Ron Paul 34:4 Today we are trying to deal legally
with a half a war. A half a war is something
like a touch of pregnancy. You
can’t have a half a war. If we do not declare
war and if we do not fight a war
because it is in our national interest
and for national security reasons, we’ll
inevitably will not fight to win the
war. That has always been our problem,
whether it was Korea, Vietnam, or
even the Persian Gulf war.
1999 Ron Paul 34:5 To me, it is so important that you
fight war for national security reasons
only, you declare a war and you fight
to win the war. We are not about to do
that today. We are not going to declare
war against Serbia. Serbia has done
nothing to America. They have been
close allies of ours, especially in World
War II. We are not going to do that.
Are we going to demand the troops be
removed? Probably not.
1999 Ron Paul 34:6 So what are we going to do? We are
going to perpetuate this confusion. But
what we should do is vote down a declaration
of war, vote to get the troops
out of Yugoslavia, and vote to stop the
bombing. The sooner we do that, the
better. That is in America’s interests.
Note:
1999 Ron Paul 34:4
well inevitably will not fight to win the war.
probably should be
we inevitably will not fight to win the war.
