Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, I am
happy to yield 3 minutes to my good
friend from Lake Jackson, Texas (Mr.
PAUL).
2010 Ron Paul 44:1
Mr. PAUL.
I thank the gentleman
from California for yielding, and I
thank you both for bringing this rule
to the floor. Even though it is a privileged
resolution, a privileged resolution
has to qualify under the law, and
under the War Powers Resolution, this
does qualify.
2010 Ron Paul 44:2
The question is, why are we doing it
at this time? It seems like Pakistan is
a minor problem compared to whatís
going on in Afghanistan as well as Iraq,
but I think people have to realize that
we go into war differently these days.
We donít make declarations of war and
the people get behind it. We slip into
war. We fall into war. We get into these
messes, and it seems to me like itís so
much easier to get into these problems
than getting out. We debate endlessly
about getting out of Afghanistan.
Weíve debated for years about how and
when itís ever going to end in Iraq, and
we bring this up now because this is an
appropriate time. It is escalating. The
war is spreading, and weíre trying to
stop this. Weíre trying to let the people
know and let the Congress know that
this war is getting bigger. It is not getting
smaller. A lot of people thought
with this administration war would get
smaller and we would end some of this.
2010 Ron Paul 44:3
It has been said that we need to be in
Pakistan for national security reasons.
I disagree with that. I think the fact
that weíre in there makes me feel more
threatened because Pakistan is not
about to attack us. We talk about the
few troops there and that theyíre insignificant
and we shouldnít worry about
it, itís not significant, but thatís the
way we started in Vietnam. People
were training soldiers, and before you
knew it, we lost 60,000 people.
2010 Ron Paul 44:4
But you know, in this day and age,
with the type of wars that we fight, occupation
with combat troops is not exactly
how we get involved, and I believe
the way I read the War Powers
Resolution, it does involve attacks on
countries with bombs. This is what
weíre doing. Weíre attacking this country.
The people of Pakistan donít like
it. The number of drone attacks in
Pakistan now has doubled the number
that it was under the Bush administration.
So it is escalating. There have
been 14 al Qaeda leaders killed by these
drone attacks, but there were also 687
civilians killed. So, therefore, the efficiency
of this isnít all that good, and
now thereís reports coming out that
these drones donít always come back,
and a lot of times they crash, and a lot
of times we have to go out and find
them. So thereís a lot of activity going
on.
2010 Ron Paul 44:5
There is another reason we bring this
up at this time. It is financial. We
canít afford to expand the war. We
canít afford the wars we have already.
We canít afford to take care of our people
at home. This costs money, and
since we see this as an escalation and
more provocation and a greater danger
to us, because people are going to get
upset. The people donít like this. There
has actually already been a court ruling
in Pakistan.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentlemanís
time has expired.
Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, I yield my
friend an additional 2 minutes.
2010 Ron Paul 44:7
But the finances are certainly important.
In the Congress, because weíre
slipping into this war, we have just recently
granted $7.5 billion of aid to
Pakistan. And what did they do with
this money?
2010 Ron Paul 44:8
Well, itís supposed to not be military.
Itís supposed to help rebuild their
country, help their infrastructure.
Well, we need a couple of dollars here
for our infrastructure. But they can
take that money; itís fungible. It goes
into their intelligence. Their intelligence
observations are being used for
the Taliban, and we are fighting the
Taliban.
2010 Ron Paul 44:9
So itís totally inconsistent that we
are on both sides of so many wars and
whatís going on. The mujahedin, they
were our allies and we were fighting
the occupation of the Soviets. Itís the
occupation that is the issue, and we
were on their side and the Soviets were
run out.
2010 Ron Paul 44:10
But now that same group, who are
called the Taliban now, the Taliban, we
have to remember, had nothing to do
with 9/11. It was the al Qaeda, not the
Taliban. The Taliban are people who
are unified with one issue, one concern
they have, foreign occupation or foreign
bombings of those countries.
2010 Ron Paul 44:11
We need to make sure the American
people know whatís going on and that
there are sometimes revelations that
we donít hear about. Too often our government
is involved in secret wars.
There was secret bombing of Cambodia
back in the 1960s, and here we are slipping
and sliding once more into the escalation
of this war which, unfortunately,
is going to cost us a lot of
money; itís going to cost us a lot of
lives, a lot of innocent lives.
2010 Ron Paul 44:12
Unfortunately, I wish I could believe
that we are going to be more secure for
this. I think we are going to be less secure
because of this activity, and we
will finally someday have to meet up
to the question of why do they want to
come here to kill us? Do they want to
do it because of their religion? Do they
want to do it because we are rich and
because we are free? No. They want to
come here because we occupy their territory.
