[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 94 (Friday, June 12, 2015)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E888]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                MIDDLE EAST WARS ARE A HORRIBLE MISTAKE

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                        HON. JOHN J. DUNCAN, JR.

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, June 12, 2015

  Mr. DUNCAN of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, Thomas Sowell is one of this 
Nation's most-respected economists and syndicated columnists.
  His latest column is about the lessons we should learn from our 
seemingly-endless war in Iraq.
  Mr. Sowell wrote: ``Going back to square one, what lessons might we 
learn from the whole experience of the Iraq War?
  If nothing else, we should never again imagine that we can engage in 
``nation-building'' in the sweeping sense that term acquired in Iraq--
least of all building a democratic Arab nation in a region of the world 
that has never had such a thing in a history that goes back thousands 
of years.''
  Mr. Sowell is right.
  It has been a horrible mistake for this Nation to spend trillions of 
dollars on unnecessary wars in the Middle East.
  We should never have gotten involved in all these civil wars between 
Shi'a and Sunni.
  Yet, we keep on pouring mega-billions down these ratholes, voting for 
even more billions over there as recently as yesterday. When will we 
ever learn?

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