Mr. KUCINICH. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2½ minutes to the gentleman from Texas, Congressman RON PAUL, an American patriot, someone who has been relentless in his efforts to stop America from blundering into foreign adventures.
2012 Ron Paul 14:2
I think this bill would be better named if we called it “Obsession with Iran Act of 2012” because this is what we continue to be doing—obsess with Iran and the idea that Iran is a threat to our national security.
2012 Ron Paul 14:3
Iran happens to be a Third World nation. They have no significant navy, air force, intercontinental ballistic missiles. The IAEA and our CIA say they are not on the verge of a nuclear weapon.
2012 Ron Paul 14:4
It’s so similar to what we went through in the early part of this last decade where we were beating the war drums to go to war against Iraq. And it was all a facade. There was no danger from Iraq. So this is what we’re doing, beating the war drums once again.
2012 Ron Paul 14:5
Since the bill has come back from the conference, if we are to deal with civil liberties in Syria—well, I happen to be a civil libertarian. I am very concerned about civil liberties. But let me tell you, this bill is not going to do anything to enhance the civil liberties of the individuals in Syria.
2012 Ron Paul 14:6
If we were really interested in civil liberties, why wouldn’t we look to ourselves? Why wouldn’t we look to the things we do here? What about our warrantless searches under the PATRIOT Act? What about the policy of assassination, assassinating American citizens? What about arrests by the military, the National Defense Authorization Act? What about the drone warfare that we go on? Do you think we are protecting civil liberties by arbitrarily dropping drones or threatening to drop drones anyplace in the world, with innocent people dying?
2012 Ron Paul 14:7
If we want to really care about civil liberties in Syria, why don’t we care about the secret prisons we have and the history of torture that we have had in this country?
2012 Ron Paul 14:8
What about the fact that kill lists are being made by the executive branch of government, and we sit idly by and approve of it by saying nothing, and the American people put up with it, and we march in this direction, marching into a determination to have another war?
2012 Ron Paul 14:9
When you put sanctions on a country, it’s an act of war, and that is what this is all about. The first thing you do when war breaks out between two
countries is you put sanctions on them. You blockade the country. So this is an act of war.
2012 Ron Paul 14:10
What would we do if somebody blockaded and put sanctions on us and prevented the importation of any product of this country? We would be furious. We would declare war. We would go to war.
2012 Ron Paul 14:11
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So we are the antagonists. We’re over there poking our nose and poking our nose in other people’s affairs, just looking for a chance to start another war. First it’s Syria and then Iran. We have too many wars. We need to stop the wars. We don’t have the money to fight these wars any longer.
