NO MORE!...We Must Stop The 40-Year Old Obsession With Iran
Consistent failure has not deterred those who wish to rule the world militarily. With each passing decade, the foreign policy of America's Founders is looking more and more attractive. Ron Paul has consistently advocated their policy of non-intervention and peace.
Consistent failure has not deterred those who wish to rule the world militarily. With each passing decade, the foreign policy of America's Founders is looking more and more attractive. Ron Paul has consistently advocated their policy of non-intervention and peace.
Consistent failure has not deterred those who wish to rule the world militarily. With each passing decade, the foreign policy of America's Founders is looking more and more attractive. Ron Paul has consistently advocated their policy of non-intervention and peace.
I disagree because we don't know if they have a weapon.
Matter of fact, there's no evidence that they have it.
There is no evidence.
Israel, Israel claims they do not have it, and our government doesn't.
I don't want them to get a weapon.
But I think what we're doing is encouraging them to have a weapon because they feel threatened.
If you look at a map of, if you look at a map of Iran, we have 45 bases around their country plus our submarines.
The Iranians can't possibly attack anybody.
And we're worrying about the possibility of one nuclear weapon.
Now, just think about the Cold War.
The Soviets had 30,000 of them.
And we talked to them.
The Soviets killed 100 million people and the Chinese, and we worked our way out of it.
And if you want to worry about nuclear weapons, worry about the nuclear weapons that were left over from the Soviet Union.
They're still floating around.
They don't have them all detailed.
So we're ready to go to war.
I say going to war rapidly like this is risky and it's reckless.
Now, if they're so determined to go to war, the only thing I plead with you for, if this is the case, is do it properly.
Ask the people and ask the Congress for a declaration of war.
This is war and people are going to die and you've got to get a declaration of war.
But I wouldn't wait for my generals.
I'm the commander-in-chief.
I make the decisions.
I tell the generals what to do, and I'd bring them home as quickly as possible, and I'd get them out of Iraq as well.
And I wouldn't start a war in Libya.
I'd quit bombing Yemen and I'd quit bombing Pakistan.
I'd start taking care of people here at home because we could save hundreds of billions of dollars.
Our national security is not enhanced by our presence over there.
We have no purpose there.
We should learn the lessons of history.
And the longer we're there, the worse things are, and the more danger we're in as well, because our presence there is not making friends.
Let me tell you.
I yield two and a half minutes to an American patriot, someone who's been relentless in his efforts to stop America from blundering into foreign adventures.
Congressman Ron Paul from Texas.
Gentleman from Texas is recognized for two and one-half minutes.
I thank the gentleman for yielding.
I think this bill would be better named if we called it Obsession with Iran Act 2012.
Because this is what we continue to be doing: obsessed with Iran and the idea that Iran is a threat to our national security.
Iran happens to be a third world nation.
They have no significant Navy, Air Force, intercontinental ballistic missiles.
The IAEA and our CIA said they're not on the verge of a nuclear weapon.
It's so similar to what we went through in the early part of this last decade when we were beating the war drums to go to war against Iraq.
And it was all off facade.
There was no danger from Iraq.
So this is what we're doing, beating the war drums once again.
Now, since the bill has come back from the conference, we're going to deal with civil liberties in Syria.
Well, I happen to be a civil libertarian.
I'm 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.
Now, if we were really interested in civil liberties, why wouldn't we look to ourselves?
Why wouldn't we look to the things that we do here?
What about our warrantless searches under the Patriot Act?
What about the policy of assassination and assassinating American citizens?
What about arrest by the military, 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 rob drones any place in the world with innocent people dying?
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've had in this country?
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?
When you put on sanctions on a country, it's an act of war and that's what this is all about.
The first thing you do when war breaks out between two countries is you put sanctions on you blockade the country.
So this is an act of war.
What would we do if somebody blockaded and put sanctions on us and prevented the importation of any product in this country?
We'd be furious.
We'd declare war.
We'd go to war.
So we are the antagonists.
We're over there poking our nose and poking our nose in other people's affair, just looking for the chance to start another war.
First in Syria, 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.
But there's reports now that say hotel and resort companies are looking to develop properties in Iran following the Obama administration's nuclear deal.
Does Iran become the next tourist hotspot following this recent boom of tourism that we are now seeing in Cuba?
Well, let's hope so.
That's a great move for world peace.
You know, it's pretty amazing that with this administration, it has not done very many things correctly in over eight years, but they have done two things.
Cuba and Iran, this is fantastic.
But what bothers me is the inconsistency.
Look at what he did in Libya and look at what he does in Syria.
Look at what he does in Ukraine.
Look at what he does in Afghanistan, all in the wrong direction.
But I think these two things will signify the best things that Obama ever did.
Just like Nixon's remembered for, you know, having more peaceful relationships with China.
That's been fantastic.
And I think this is great, and I hope they do, and I hope everybody benefits.
But I wish they would be more consistent.
Say, well, if friendship and trade is worthwhile and it leads to a more peaceful world, why don't we do a lot more of it?
At the same time, though, we're off looking for a fight someplace.
We're looking to fight with Russia and China and everybody else.
It makes no sense.
There was a period of time that we were strong enemies of Iran and friends of Saddam Hussein, you know, during that period of time when the Iraqis were fighting Iranians.
And that was in the 80s.
But in 1988, in the process of this, we shot down, our Navy shot down a commercial airline.
290 Iranians were killed.
But I bet there isn't one in 20,000 or one in a million Americans would have any idea about that.
But, well, it wasn't a big deal.
Matter of fact, the captain of that ship ended up getting special nominations for awards for being a great leader, a military leader.
But that is remembered.
They remember the coup.
Iranians remember the coup.
And I think what most people don't realize is that when we do these things, we elicit the radicals.
What If War Undermines Liberty?00:03:25
I mean, I don't think there would be an Ayatollah in charge if we had just stayed out of there.
What if our foreign policy of the past century is deeply flawed and has not served our national security interests?
What if we wake up one day and realize that the terrorist threat is a predictable consequence of our meddling in the affairs of others and has nothing to do with us being free and prosperous?
What if propping up repressive regimes in the Middle East endangers both the United States and Israel?
What if occupying countries like Iraq and Afghanistan and bombing Pakistan is directly related to the hatred directed toward us?
What if someday it dawns on us that losing over 5,000 American military personnel in the Middle East since 9-11 is not a fair trade-off for the loss of nearly 3,000 American citizens, no matter how many Iraqi, Pakistani, and Afghan people are killed or displaced?
What if we finally decide that torture, even if called enhanced interrogation technique, is self-destructive and produces no useful information and that contracting it out to a third world nation is just as evil?
What if it is finally realized that war and military spending is always destructive to the economy?
What if all wartime spending is paid for through the deceitful and evil process of inflating and borrowing?
What if we finally see that wartime conditions always undermine personal liberty?
What if conservatives who preach small government wake up and realize that our interventionist foreign policy provides the greatest incentive to expand the government?
What if conservatives understood once again that their only logical position is to reject military intervention in managing an empire throughout the world?
What if the American people woke up and understood that the official reasons for going to war are almost always based on lies and promoted by war propaganda in order to serve special interests?
What if we as a nation came to realize that the quest for empire eventually destroys all great nations?
What if Obama has no intention of leaving Iraq?
What if a military draft is being planned for for the wars that will spread if our foreign policy is not changed?
What if the American people learn the truth that our foreign policy has nothing to do with national security, that it never changes from one administration to the next?
What if war and preparation for war is a racket serving the special interests?
What if President Obama is completely wrong about Afghanistan and turns out worse than Iraq and Vietnam put together?
What if Christianity actually teaches peace and not preventive wars of aggression?
What if diplomacy is found to be superior to bombs and bribes in protecting America?
What happens if my concerns are completely unfounded?
Nothing.
But what happens if my concerns are justified and ignored?