The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a
previous order of the House, the gentleman
from Texas (Mr. PAUL) is recognized
for 5 minutes.
2010 Ron Paul 39:1
Mr. PAUL.
Mr. Speaker, in January
1991, we went to war in the Middle East
against Saddam Hussein, Iraqís dictator
who was our ally during the Iran-
Iraq war. A border dispute between Kuwait
and Iraq broke out after our State
Department gave a green light to Husseinís
invasion.
2010 Ron Paul 39:2
After Iraqís successful invasion of
Kuwait, we reacted with gusto and
have been militarily involved in the
entire region 6,000 miles from our
shores ever since. This has included
Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen,
and Somalia. After 20 years of killing
and a couple trillion dollars wasted,
not only does the fighting continue
with no end in sight, but our leaders
threaten to spread our bombs of benevolence
on Iran.
2010 Ron Paul 39:3
For most Americans, we are at war,
at war against a tactic called terrorism,
not a country. This allows our
military to go anyplace in the world
without limits as to time or place. But
how can we be at war? Congress has not
declared war, as required by the Constitution,
that is true. But our Presidents
have, and Congress and the people
have not objected. Congress obediently
provides all the money requested
for the war.
2010 Ron Paul 39:4
People are dying. Bombs are dropped.
Our soldiers are shot at and killed. Our
soldiers wear a uniform; our enemies
do not. They are not part of any government.
They have no planes, no
tanks, no ships, no missiles, and no
modern technology. What kind of a war
is this anyway, if it really is one? If it
was a real war, we would have won it
by now. Our stated goal since 9/11 has
been to destroy al Qaeda.
2010 Ron Paul 39:5
Was al Qaeda in Iraq? Not under Saddam
Hussein. Our leaders lied us into
invading Iraq and deceived us into occupying
Afghanistan. There is still
really no al Qaeda in Iraq and only 100
or so in Afghanistan, and yet there is
no end in sight to the war. Could there
have been other reasons for this war
that is not a war? A military victory in
Afghanistan is illusive. Does anyone
really know who we are fighting and
why?
2010 Ron Paul 39:6
Why has the war not ended? Nine
years, and it continues to spread. Some
claim it is to keep America safe, that
our soldiers are fighting and dying for
our freedom, defending our Constitution.
Are we being lied to in order to
keep us in this spreading war, just as
we were lied to in the 1960s to keep us
in Vietnam?
2010 Ron Paul 39:7
We own the Iraq Government, as we
do Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, we are
fighting the Taliban, those dangerous
people with guns defending their homeland.
Once they were called the
Mujahideen, our old allies, along with
bin Laden, in the fight to oust the Soviets
from Afghanistan in the 1980s. In
that effort, our CIA funded radical
jihad against that nasty foreign occupier,
the Russians. What gratitude.
Those same people now resent our benevolent
occupation, with a little violence
thrown in.
2010 Ron Paul 39:8
The resistance to our presence grows
as our perseverance wanes. Our people
are waking up, but our officials refuse
to recognize the longer we stay, the
greater is the support for those dedicated
to the principle that Afghanistan
is for Afghans who resent all foreign
occupation.
2010 Ron Paul 39:9
The harder we fight a war that is not
a war, the weaker we get and the
stronger becomes our enemy. When an
enemy without weapons can respect an
army of great strength, the most powerful
of all history, one should ask,
who has the moral high ground?
2010 Ron Paul 39:10
Military failure in Afghanistan is to
be our destiny. Changing generals
without changing our policies or our
policymakers perpetuates our agony
and delays the inevitable.
2010 Ron Paul 39:11
This is not a war that our generals
have been trained for. Nation building,
police work, social engineering is never
a job for foreign occupiers and never an
appropriate job for soldiers trained to
win wars.
2010 Ron Paul 39:12
A military victory is no longer even
a stated goal of our military leaders or
our politicians, as they know that type
of victory is impossible.
2010 Ron Paul 39:13
The sad story is, this war is against
ourselves, our values, our Constitution,
our financial well-being and common
sense. And at the rate weíre going, itís
going to end badly.
2010 Ron Paul 39:14
What we need are honest leaders with
character and a new foreign policy.
