[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 2]
[House]
[Page 1524]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     ILL-ADVISED U.S. INTERVENTIONS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Duncan) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DUNCAN. Madam Speaker, I have always believed that national 
defense is one of the most and at times the most important and most 
legitimate function of our national government. I have strongly 
supported our military, although at times I have also supported some 
cost-saving measures in defense spending.
  I voted for the Gulf War several years ago because Saddam Hussein had 
moved against another country, Kuwait, and was threatening others. He 
had what was considered to be the strongest military in the Middle 
East, although we now know that we vastly overestimated his strength. 
There were fears then that he might try to take over the entire region 
if he was not stopped.
  A few months ago I voted for the $100 million U.S. contribution to 
try to remove him. From what I have read, Saddam Hussein appears to be 
a horrible megalomaniac, a terrible dictator who has killed people to 
stay in power, and I would agree with anything bad that one could say 
about him.
  But I believe that Robert Novak, the nationally syndicated columnist 
and TV commentator, is right when he calls our action against Iraq ``a 
phony, political war.''
  Iraq's military strength was almost wiped out by the Gulf War eight 
years ago. Our sanctions since that time have ruined what was left of 
Iraq's economy. Our latest bombings have been against an extremely 
weak, almost defenseless nation, and in fact, against a military the 
size and strength of ours, Iraq is defenseless. We are doing this to a 
country that made no overt action against us, and in fact did not even 
threaten to.
  There is no threat to our national security. There is no vital U.S. 
interest at stake or that is even threatened. Iraq is not even a paper 
tiger today.
  Some of our leaders have tried their best to make Iraq sound 
threatening by repeatedly talking about weapons of mass destruction, 
yet in several years of inspections by U.N. inspectors, no weapons of 
mass destruction were found. Besides, many nations, including us and 
our leading allies, have weapons of mass destruction. We cannot go bomb 
every nation that has some weapon of mass destruction.
  We have spent over $2 billion on the Iraqi deployment over the last 
few months and are still spending huge amounts; many, many millions 
each day. This is a surrealistic war. Most Americans do not even feel 
like we are at war. The news from Iraq is not even making the front 
pages.
  All we are doing is wasting billions of dollars and making enemies 
all over the world. We are repeatedly involving ourselves in ethnic, 
religious and historical conflicts, some of which have been going on 
for centuries and which will go on long after we pull out, if we ever 
do. All we are doing is wasting billions of dollars and making enemies 
all over the world.
  We have turned our military into international social workers. A few 
years ago the front page of the Washington Post carried a story that 
said we had our troops in Haiti picking up garbage and settling 
domestic disputes. Last year on this floor I heard another Member say 
we had our troops in Bosnia giving rabies shots to dogs. Most Americans 
believe the Haitians should pick up their own garbage and that the 
Bosnians should give their own rabies shots.
  By the way, the President originally promised we would be out of 
Bosnia by the end of 1996. Yes, 1996. This is February of 1999, and we 
are still there.
  Now we are preparing to send troops to Kosovo. We sent troops to 
Haiti, Rwanda, Somalia, Bosnia, Iraq and now Kosovo, and billions and 
billions of dollars taken from low and middle-income Americans to 
finance all of this. Anyone who even dares to oppose any foreign 
intervention that the elites dream up is sarcastically, or at least 
unkindly, referred to as an isolationist. The interventionists will not 
discuss these issues on the merits without name-calling.
  But it is not isolationist to believe that we should try to be 
friends to all nations. We end up making more enemies than friends when 
we take sides in every international dispute that pops up.

                              {time}  1645

  We cannot serve as the world's policeman. We cannot force our will on 
everyone. If we try, sometimes we will choose the wrong side. Just a 
few years ago we considered Iraq to be an ally against Iran. Even today 
our leaders tell us that the Iraqi people are not our enemies, but we 
are fast turning them into enemies.
  Scott Ritter, the U.N. Inspector, resigned in protest in December, 
saying that we had rigged the UNSCOM report in order to justify our 
bombing. In August, after the President's ``apology'' flopped, we 
bombed the Sudan and Afghanistan. We rushed into that bombing so fast 
that only one of the members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was informed. 
Paul Harvey and others have later reported that we had bombed a 
medicine factory, and we gained nothing from those bombings. We just, 
once again, wasted huge amounts of money and made more enemies.
  Why are we doing all this? Is it to make our national leaders appear 
to be world statesmen? Is it to assure them a place in history? Is it 
to give the military justification for more funding? Is it a military 
desperately in search of a mission? We don't need all this bombing. 
Going to war should be the most reluctant decision we ever made. We 
should do so only as a very last resort, when all other reasonable 
alternatives have been exhausted.
  Finally, Madam Speaker, while very few people seem to care about the 
Constitution anymore, it is unconstitutional to drop bombs on and go to 
war against another Nation without a declaration of war by Congress.

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