[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 64 (Wednesday, May 5, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H2778]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1945
                         KOSOVO WAR IS ILLEGAL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mrs. Northup). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Paul) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PAUL. Madam Speaker, it is time to stop the bombing. NATO's war 
against Serbia left the Congress and the American people in a quandary, 
and no wonder. The official excuse for NATO's bombing war is that 
Milosevic would not sign a treaty drawn up by NATO, which would have 
taken Kosovo away from the Serbs after the KLA demanded independence 
from Serbia.
  This war is immoral because Serbia did not commit aggression against 
us. We were not attacked and there has been no threat to our national 
security. This war is illegal. It is undeclared. There has been no 
congressional authorization and no money has been appropriated for it. 
The war is pursued by the U.S. under NATO's terms, yet it is illegal 
even according to NATO's treaty as well as the U.N. charter. The 
internationalists do not even follow their own laws and do not care 
about the U.S. Constitution.
  The humanitarian excuse for the war is suspect. Economic interests 
are involved, as they so often are in most armed conflicts. NATO's 
vaguely stated goals have not been achieved. For the most part, the 
opposite has. Let me give my colleagues a few examples.
  Number one. Milosevic is now more powerful than ever; the Serb's more 
unified.
  Number two. Russia is now alienated from the west. Their hold on a 
nuclear arsenal is ignored. Along with Russia's economic desperation 
and political instability, NATO is pushing Russia into a new alliance 
against the west.
  Number three. Innocent Serbs and Albanian citizens are routinely 
being killed by our bombs.
  Number four. Civilian targets are deliberately hit, including water, 
power and sewer plants, fuel storage and TV stations.
  Number five. An economic embargo is now being instituted to starve 
children and prevent medications from reaching the sick, just as we 
have been doing for a decade against Iraq.
  Number six. This war institutionalizes foreign control over our 
troops. Tony Blair now tells Bill Clinton how to fight a NATO war, 
while the U.S. taxpayers pay for it.
  Number seven. Greater instability in the region has resulted.
  Number eight. We are once again supporting Osama bin Laden and his 
friends in the KLA.
  Number nine. We have bombed Bulgaria. By mistake, of course. Sorry.
  Number ten. Our weapons are being depleted, our troops spread too 
thin, resulting in further undermining of our national defense.
  Number eleven. Billions of dollars are thrown down a rat hole and 
Congress is about to vote for more.
  Number twelve. The massive refugee problem, which is essentially a 
result of NATO's bombing, continues.
  Up until now, general defense funds have been spent to wage this war 
without permission. The President wants to catch up and is asking for 
$6 billion, but Congress, in its infinite wisdom, wants to give him $13 
billion for a war Congress rejects. Once we directly fund the war we 
will be partners in this misadventure. The votes last week were 
symbolic. They had no effect of law, but appropriations do.
  Saying the new appropriations will be used to beef up a neglected 
defense does not make it so. Defense funds are fungible. The President 
has proven this by waging a war for a month without any authorization 
or appropriation. Congress will no more control the next $13 billion 
than the money the President has already spent on the war.
  Appropriating funds to fight a war, even without a declaration, 
provides a much more powerful legal and political endorsement of the 
war than the public statements made against it by nonbinding 
resolutions passed by the House last week. Declaring war and funding 
war are two powerful tools of the Congress to restrain a president from 
waging an unwise and illegal war. If the President pursues an 
undeclared war and we fund it, we become partners, no matter what 
justification is given for the spending.
  Only chaos can come from ignoring the strict prohibition by the 
Constitution of a president unilaterally waging war. If a president 
ignores the absence of a declaration, and we are serious, the only 
option left to Congress is the power of the purse, which is clearly the 
responsibility of the Congress. We should not fund this illegal and 
immoral NATO war.




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