I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman
from Texas (Mr. PAUL), who is the cosponsor
of this resolution. I want to express
to him my gratitude for his patriotism.
(Mr. PAUL asked and was given permission
to revise and extend his remarks.)
2010 Ron Paul 46:2
First off, I would like to address the
subject about hostilities. It is true that
there are no armies facing each other
and shooting and killing each other, no
tanks, no conventional type of hostilities.
We donít live in a conventional
era and we donít fight conventional
wars, but there is a lot of hostile action
going on.
2010 Ron Paul 46:3
In looking and checking to find out if
anybody has been killed, in the reports
that I found, anywhere from 1,000 to
2,500 Pakistanis have been killed. Now,
that sounds like itís rather hostile.
And that comes not from our invasion
in troop, but weíve invaded them with
our predators, with our drone missiles,
and we drop bombs and we aim at targets,
always at the bad people. But to
the best of my knowledge from the information
I get is that 14 al Qaeda
leaders have been killed, and the rest
have been civilians. And who knows exactly
what their sentiments would be.
Maybe a lot of them were defending
their own country. Maybe they donít
like foreign occupiers. But there is a
lot of hostile action going on and a lot
of people are dying.
2010 Ron Paul 46:4
The gentleman from Ohio is quite
correct. If you check with the people of
Pakistan, they donít want us there.
They donít want bombs dropped on
them. How would we react in this country
if all of a sudden there was a drone
missile that landed on one of our cities
and even one or two or three Americans
were killed? We would be outraged
and we would want to know about it.
And here we do it constantly.
2010 Ron Paul 46:5
I complain that we donít know
enough about it and we give up our prerogatives.
We allow the Presidents to
do what they want and then we just capitulate
and give them the money and
do whatever. But I argue we donít
know enough. We donít assume our responsibility.
The American people
donít know about it until we get deep
into these quagmires and into these
messes.
2010 Ron Paul 46:6
But what about in Pakistan? There is
a lot of conniving going on there because
I am sure their leaders are quite
satisfied with us going in there because
we bribe them. The Congress just recently
passed a bill that promises them
$7.5 billion. Thatís how they stay in
power, and itís also how they can help
the Taliban whoís fighting us.
2010 Ron Paul 46:7
The whole thing is such a mess, but
the people, if you ask the people of
Pakistan, theyíre not going to support
this. And the argument is that we have
to support this because our generals
want us to, because this is our mission.
Well, what is our mission? Our mission
ought to be to defend this country, preserve
liberty, and show people what a
free society looks like. We shouldnít be
trying to tell other people how to live
with bombs and threats. We give them
two options: We tell them do it our
way, and if they do, we give them a lot
of money. If they donít do it our way,
we start bombing them. But we donít
achieve anything. Thatís my contention.
We just go on and on.
2010 Ron Paul 46:8
My big beef is with the overall policy.
I know weíre talking about the
technicalities and weíre talking about
Afghanistan and Pakistan, but we
donít solve any of these technical problems
until we deal with the subject of
what kind of a foreign policy we endorse.
Are we supposed to be the policemen
of the world? Are we supposed to
be in nation building? Are we supposed
to bankrupt our people? Are we supposed
to support the infrastructure of
others, building all around the world
and neglect all of ours? Itís coming to
an end because this country is bankrupt,
and weíre going to have to change
our policy whether we like it or not.
