Congress Must
Admit Its Mistake and Repeal the Authorization to Go to War
The War Funding Bill
Counterpunch
March 23, 2007
By Rep. RON PAUL
The
$124 billion supplemental appropriation is a good bill to
oppose. I am pleased that many of my colleagues will join me in
voting against this measure.
If one is unhappy with our
progress in Iraq after four years of war, voting to de-fund the
war makes sense. If one is unhappy with the manner in which we
went to war, without a constitutional declaration, voting no
makes equally good sense.
Voting no also makes the
legitimate point that the Constitution does not authorize
Congress to direct the management of any military operation--
the president clearly enjoys this authority as Commander in
Chief.
But Congress just as clearly
is responsible for making policy, by debating and declaring war,
raising and equipping armies, funding military operations, and
ending conflicts that do not serve our national interests.
Congress failed to meet its
responsibilities four years ago, unconstitutionally transferring
its explicit war power to the executive branch. Even though the
administration started the subsequent pre-emptive war in Iraq,
Congress bears the greatest responsibility for its lack of
courage in fulfilling its duties. Since then Congress has
obediently provided the funds and troops required to pursue this
illegitimate war.
We won't solve the problems in
Iraq until we confront our failed policy of foreign
interventionism. This latest appropriation does nothing to solve
our dilemma. Micromanaging the war while continuing to fund it
won't help our troops.
Here's a new approach:
Congress should admit its mistake and repeal the authority
wrongfully given to the executive branch in 2002. Repeal the
congressional sanction and disavow presidential discretion in
starting wars. Then start bringing our troops home.
If anyone charges that this
approach does not support the troops, take a poll. Find out how
reservists, guardsmen, and their families--many on their second
or third tour in Iraq--feel about it.
The constant refrain that
bringing our troops home would demonstrate a lack of support for
them must be one of the most amazing distortions ever foisted on
the American public. We're so concerned about saving face, but
whose face are we saving? A sensible policy would save American
lives and follow the rules laid out for Congress in the
Constitution-and avoid wars that have no purpose.
The claim that it's
unpatriotic to oppose spending more money in Iraq must be laid
to rest as fraudulent.
We should pass a resolution
that expresses congressional opposition to any more undeclared,
unconstitutional, unnecessary, pre-emptive wars. We should be
building a consensus for the future that makes it easier to end
our current troubles in Iraq.
It's amazing to me that this
Congress is more intimidated by political propagandists and
special interests than the American electorate, who sent a loud,
clear message about the war in November. The large majority of
Americans now want us out of Iraq.
Our leaders cannot grasp the
tragic consequence of our policies toward Iraq for the past 25
years. It's time we woke them up.
We are still by far the
greatest military power on earth. But since we stubbornly refuse
to understand the nature of our foes, we are literally defeating
ourselves.
In 2004, bin Laden stated that
Al Qaeda's goal was to bankrupt the United States. His second in
command, Zawahari, is quoted as saying that the 9/11 attack
would cause Americans to, "come and fight the war personally on
our sand where they are within rifle range."
Sadly, we are playing into
their hands. This $124 billion appropriation is only part of the
nearly $1 trillion in military spending for this year's budget
alone. We should be concerned about the coming bankruptcy and
the crisis facing the U.S. dollar.
We have totally failed to
adapt to modern warfare. We're dealing with a small, nearly
invisible enemy--an enemy without a country, a government, an
army, a navy, an air force, or missiles. Yet our enemy is armed
with suicidal determination, and motivated by our meddling in
their regional affairs, to destroy us.
And as we bleed financially,
our men and women in Iraq die needlessly while the injured swell
Walter Reed hospital. Our government systematically undermines
the Constitution and the liberties it's supposed to protect--
for which it is claimed our soldiers are dying in faraway
places.
Only with the complicity of
Congress have we become a nation of pre-emptive war, secret
military tribunals, torture, rejection of habeas corpus,
warrantless searches, undue government secrecy, extraordinary
renditions, and uncontrollable spying on the American people.
The greatest danger we face is ourselves: what we are doing in
the name of providing security for a people made fearful by
distortions of facts. Fighting over there has nothing to do with
preserving freedoms here at home. More likely the opposite is
true.
Surely we can do better than
this supplemental authorization. I plan to vote no.
Ron Paul is a Republican
congressman from Texas.
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