2010 Ron Paul 47:2
Mr. Speaker, I want to talk a little
bit more about our policy because, as I
said before, I think it is the policy that
gets us into these predicaments and
that, if you deal with this as a strictly
technical/tactical problem that we
have to face in how to rectify our problems,
I donít think it will occur. I
think we have to deal in the overall
policy.
2010 Ron Paul 47:3
In many ways, we follow a schizophrenic
type of foreign policy because,
one time, they are our best friends,
then later on they become our worst
enemies. This was true with Saddam
Hussein. In the 1980s, he was our friend.
We took care of him. We encouraged
him and supported his war. Then of
course that changed. Even right before
9/11, the Taliban were still receiving
money from us, and now they receive
money from us indirectly. The Taliban
gets money from the Pakistanis, or at
least information as has been reported,
but they literally get some of our
money in the process because, in order
for us to move equipment through Afghanistan,
they literally end up getting
American dollars from doing this.
2010 Ron Paul 47:4
So here we are going into Pakistan.
One of the arguments to go into Pakistan
is that we have to go after the
Taliban—that they are over there, that
they are organizing and that they want
to kill the American soldiers in Afghanistan.
This means that now they
are our archenemies. Yet the Taliban,
especially in the 1980s, werenít called
the Taliban; they were called the Mujahedeen.
It was a precursor, but they
were our best friends along with Osama
bin Laden. We were allies with them
because we supported the principle
that it was wrong for the Soviets to be
occupying Afghanistan.
2010 Ron Paul 47:5
Now the tables have turned. Now we
are the occupiers. Now the very people
who used to help us are shooting and
killing us. It has been revealed just recently
with this release of information
that they actually have some Stinger
missiles, and as of the last month or
so, three of our helicopters have been
shot down.
2010 Ron Paul 47:7
One thing about the reports in the
newspaper, I think if they changed the
definition or the use of one term, I
think it would change everybodyís attitude,
if people came around to believing
that the Taliban are people who
arenít dedicated toward coming over
here to kill us, like some of the al
Qaeda are, but the Taliban are only interested
in getting rid of the occupiers
of their country.
2010 Ron Paul 47:8
So we call them militant. So we go
in, and we raid and shoot and kill and
bomb, and then we say, aha, we killed
37 militants today.
2010 Ron Paul 47:9
What if we reported this always like
we did in the eighties.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The
time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. KUCINICH. I yield the gentleman
another minute.
2010 Ron Paul 47:10
Mr. PAUL. What if it was always reported
that freedom fighters were
killed, as it was when they were our
friends and our allies? The whole thing
would change.
2010 Ron Paul 47:11
But, no, we call them militants and
we call them insurgents. But they were
formerly our allies and our so-called
friends.
2010 Ron Paul 47:12
So this is just a reflection on the ridiculousness
of our analyst policy of
intervention and how so often our allies
and our friends turn against us,
and how our money, taxpayersí money,
so often is used against us. I think this
is a perfect example.
2010 Ron Paul 47:13
We would like to stop it. Thatís why
we brought this resolution up. We donít
want to see this war spread, and we
want the American people to know
about it, and we want this Congress to
know about it, because foreign policy
isnít even written in the Constitution.
2010 Ron Paul 47:14
The responsibility of how we run our
foreign affairs is with the U.S. Congress;
and when we go to war, it should
be a congressional function, not an executive
function; and some day we may
get there, but right now, today, we
have to do our very best to let people
know the shortcomings of the policy
weíre following in Pakistan.
