Foreign Policy
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2010 Ron Paul Chapter 47

Foreign Policy
Home Page   Contents   27 July 2010
Mr. KUCINICH. I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. PAUL).


2010 Ron Paul 47:1
Mr. PAUL. I thank the gentleman for yielding.


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 47:6
So where does this all end?


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.

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