[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 12 (Wednesday, February 4, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H369-H370]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       CONGRESS MUST DECLARE WARS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Burgess). Under a previous order of

[[Page H370]]

the House, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Paul) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. PAUL. Mr. Speaker, there is plenty of blame to go around for the 
mistakes made in going to war in Iraq, especially now that it is common 
knowledge that Saddam Hussein told the truth about not having weapons 
of mass destruction and that al Qaeda and 9/11 were in no way related 
to the Iraqi Government.
  The intelligence agencies failed, for whatever reason this time, but 
their frequent failures should raise the question of whether or not 
this secret spending of $40 billion annually of the taxpayers' money is 
a good investment. The administration failed in making the decision to 
sacrifice so much life and limb by plunging us into this Persian Gulf 
quagmire that will surely last for years to come. But before the 
Congress gets too carried away with condemning the administration or 
the intelligence gathering agencies. It ought to look to itself.
  A proper investigation and debate by this Congress, as we are now 
scrambling to accomplish, was warranted prior to any decision to go to 
war. An open and detailed debate on a declaration of war resolution 
would certainly have revealed that the U.S. national security was not 
threatened and the whole war could have been avoided. Because Congress 
did not do that, it deserves the greatest criticism for its dereliction 
of duty.
  There was a precise reason that the most serious decision made by a 
country, the decision to go to war, was left by our Constitution, to 
the body closest to the people. If we followed this admonition, I am 
certain that fewer wars would be fought, wide support would be achieved 
for the sacrifices, there would be less political finger-pointing when 
events go badly, and blame could not be placed on one individual or 
agency. This process would more likely achieve victory, which has 
eluded us in recent decades.
  The President has reluctantly agreed to support an independent 
commission to review our intelligence gathering failures and that is 
good. Cynics said nothing much would be achieved by the commission 
studying the pre-9/11 failures but it looks like some objective 
criticisms will emerge from that inquiry. We hope for the best in this 
newly named commission. But we already hear that the inquiry will be 
deliberately delayed, limited to the failure of the agencies, and may 
divert into studying intelligence gathering related to North Korea and 
elsewhere.
  If the inquiry avoids the controversy of whether or not there was 
selective use of the information or undue pressure put on the CIA to 
support a foregone conclusion to go to war by the administration, the 
inquiry will appear a sham.
  Regardless of the results, the process of the inquiry is missing the 
most important point, the failure of Congress to meet its 
responsibility on the decision to go or not go to war. The current mess 
was predictable from the beginning. Unfortunately, Congress voluntarily 
gave up its prerogative over war and illegally transferred this power 
to the President in October of 2002. The debate we are now having 
should have occurred here in the halls of Congress on a declaration of 
war resolution. Indeed, the Congress chose to transfer this 
decisionmaking power to the President in order to avoid the 
responsibility of making the hard choice of sending our young people 
into harm's way against a weak Third World country. This the President 
did on his own, with Congress' acquiescence. The blame game has only 
emerged now that we are in a political season. Sadly, the call for and 
the appointment of the commission is all part of this political 
process.
  It is truly disturbing to see many who reneged on their 
responsibility for declaring or rejecting war in Congress by voting to 
give the President the power he wanted are now his harshest critics.

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