ron paul war speech

Mr. Speaker, with that, I'm happy to yield three minutes to my good friend from Lake Jackson, Texas, Mr. Paul. Chair recognizes Mr. Paul for three minutes. I thank the gentleman from California for yielding. And I thank you both for bringing this rule to the floor. Even though it is a privilege resolution, a privilege resolution has to qualify under the law and under the Warp Hars resolution, this does qualify. The question is, why are we doing it this time? It seems like Pakistan is a minor problem compared to what's going on in Afghanistan as well as Iraq. But I think people have to realize that we go into war differently these days. We don't make declarations of war and the people get behind it. We slip into war. We fall into war. We get into these masses. And it seems to me like it's so much easier to get into these problems than getting out. We debate endlessly about getting out of Afghanistan. We've debated for years about how it's ever going to end in Iraq. And we bring this up now because this is an appropriate time. It's escalating. The war is spreading. And we're trying to stop this. We're trying to let the people know and let the Congress know that this war is getting bigger. It's not getting smaller. A lot of people thought that this administration of war would get smaller and we would end some of this. It has been said that we need to be here for national security reasons. I disagree with that. I think the fact that we're in there makes me feel more threatened because Pakistan is not about to attack us. And we talk about the few troops there in that they're insignificant and don't worry about it. It's not real. But that's the way we started in Vietnam. People were training soldiers and before you know it, we lost 60,000 people. But you know, in this day and age with the type of wars that we fight, occupation with combat troops is not exactly how we get involved. And I believe the war-poss resolution that it does involve attacks on countries with bombs. And this is what we're doing. We're attacking this country. The people of Pakistan don't like it. The number of drone attacks on in Pakistan now is double the number that it was under the Bush administration. So it is escalating. There have been 14 al Qaeda leaders killed by these drone attacks. But there were also 687 civilians killed. So therefore the efficiency of this isn't all that good. Now there's reports coming out that these drones don't always come back. And a lot of times they crash. And a lot of times we have to go out and find them. So there's a lot of activity going on. There's another reason we bring this up this time. It's financial. We can't afford to expand war. We can't afford the wars. We have already. We can't afford to take care of our people at home. This cost money. It says we see this as an escalation and more provocation and a greater danger to us because people are going to get upset. The people don't like this. There has actually already been a court ruling in Pakistan. It says that we should stop the bomb. Thank you. I'm going to speak to you at any of my friends. Additional two minutes. Gentlemen is recognized for additional two minutes. I think the gentleman for yielding. But the finances are certainly important. We end the Congress because we're slipping into this war. We have just recently granted $7.5 billion of aid to Pakistan. And what do they do with his money? Well, it's supposed to not be military, it's supposed to help rebuild their country. Help their infrastructure. Well, we need a couple of dollars here for our infrastructure. But they can take that money. It's a thick, tangible. It goes into their intelligence. Their intelligence observations are being used for the Taliban. And we're fighting the Taliban. So it's totally inconsistent that we're on both sides of so many wars. And what's going on? The Mujahideen, they were our allies. And we were fighting the occupation of the Soviets. It's occupation that is the issue. And we were on their side. And the Soviets were run out. But now that St. Group who are called the Taliban now, the Taliban, we have to remember, and nothing to do with 9-11. It was the Al-Qaeda not to Taliban. The Taliban are people who are unified with one issue. One concern to have foreign occupation or foreign bombings of those countries. We need to make sure the American people know what's going on. And that there are sometimes revelations that we don't hear about too often our government is involved in secret wars. It was secret bombing of Cambodia, Babb Cambodia, back in the 1960s. And here we are slipping and sliding once more into the escalation of this war, which unfortunately is going to cost us a lot of money. It's going to cost a lot of lives, a lot of innocent lives. And unfortunately, I wish I could believe it that we're going to be more secure for this. I think we're going to be less secure because of this activity. And we will finally, someday, have to meet up to the question of why do they want to come here to kill us? Do they want to do it because they're of their religion? Do they want to do it? Because we are rich. And because we are free, no, they want to come here. I'm going to sign with you. I can't lie there, territory. Thank you. Thank you.