[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 61 (Tuesday, April 17, 2007)]
[House]
[Page H3442]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             WE JUST MARCHED IN (SO WE CAN JUST MARCH OUT)

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Paul) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PAUL. Mr. Speaker, all the reasons given to justify a preemptive 
strike against Iraq were wrong. Congress and the American people were 
misled.
  Support for the war came from various special interests that had 
agitated for an invasion of Iraq since 1998. The Iraq Liberation Act 
passed by Congress and signed into law by President Clinton stated that 
getting rid of Saddam Hussein was official U.S. policy. This policy was 
carried out in 2003.
  Congress failed miserably in meeting its crucial obligations as the 
branch of government charged with deciding whether to declare war. It 
wrongly and unconstitutionally transferred this power to the President, 
and the President did not hesitate to use it.
  Although it is clear there was no cause for war, we just marched in. 
Our leaders deceived themselves and the public with assurances that the 
war was righteous and would be over quickly. Their justifications were 
false, and they failed to grasp even basic facts about the chaotic, 
political, and religious history of the region.
  Congress bears the greater blame for this fiasco. It reneged on its 
responsibility to declare or not declare war. It transferred this 
decision-making power to the executive branch and gave open sanction to 
anything the President did. In fact, the Founders diligently tried to 
prevent the executive from possessing this power, granting it to 
Congress alone in article I, section 8, of the Constitution.
  Today, just about everyone acknowledges the war has gone badly, and 
70 percent of the American people want it to end. Our national defense 
is weakened, the financial costs continue to drain us, our allies have 
deserted us, and our enemies are multiplying, not to mention the tragic 
toll of death and injuries suffered by American forces.
  Iraq is a mess, and we urgently need a new direction. But our leaders 
offer only hand-wringing and platitudes. They have no clear-cut ideas 
to end the suffering and war. Even the most ardent war hawks cannot 
begin to define victory in Iraq.
  As an Air Force officer, serving from 1963 to 1968, I heard the same 
agonizing pleas from the American people. These pleas were met with the 
same excuses about why we could not change a deeply flawed policy and 
rethink the war in Vietnam. That bloody conflict, also undeclared and 
unconstitutional, seems to have taught us little despite the horrific 
costs.
  Once again, though everyone now accepts that the original 
justifications for invading Iraq were not legitimate, we are given 
excuses for not leaving. We flaunt our power by building permanent 
military bases and an enormous billion-dollar embassy, yet claim we 
have no plans to stay in Iraq permanently. Assurances that our presence 
in Iraq has nothing to do with oil are not believed in the Middle East. 
The argument for staying to prevent civil war and bring stability to 
the region logically falls on deaf ears.
  If the justifications for war were wrong, if the war is going badly, 
if we can't afford the costs, both human and economic, if civil war and 
chaos have resulted from our occupation, if the reasons for staying are 
not more credible than the reasons for going, then why the dilemma? The 
American people have spoken and continue to speak out against the war, 
so why not end it?
  How do we end it? Why not exactly the way we went in? We marched in 
and we can march out.
  More good things may come of it than anyone can imagine. Consider our 
relationship with Vietnam, now our friendly trading partner. Certainly 
we are doing better with her than when we tried to impose our will by 
force.
  It is time to march out of Iraq and come home.

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