[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 2]
[House]
[Pages 1629-1630]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      EVERYONE SUPPORTS THE TROOPS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Paul) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PAUL. Madam Speaker, I have never met anyone who did not support 
our troops. Sometimes, however, we hear accusations that someone or 
some group does not support the men and women serving in our Armed 
Forces. But this is pure demagoguery, and it is intellectually 
dishonest. The accusers play on emotions to gain support for 
controversial policies, implying that those who disagree are 
unpatriotic. But keeping our troops out of harm's way, especially when 
the war is unnecessary, is never unpatriotic. There is no better way to 
support the troops.
  Since we now know that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction and 
was not threatening anyone, we must come to terms with 3,000 American 
deaths and 23,000 American casualties. It is disconcerting that those 
who never believed the justifications given for our invasion and who, 
now, want the war ended, are still accused of not supporting the 
troops. This is strange, indeed.
  Instead of questioning who has the best interest of our troops at 
heart, we should be debating which policy is best for our country. 
Defensive wars to preserve our liberties, fought only with proper 
congressional declarations are legitimate. Casualties under such 
circumstances still are heartbreaking, but they are understandable. 
Casualties that occur in undeclared, unnecessary wars, however, are 
bewildering. Why must so many Americans be killed or hurt in Iraq when 
our security and our liberty were never threatened?
  Cliches about supporting the troops are designed to distract from 
failed policies, policies promoted by powerful special interests that 
benefit from war, anything to steer the discussion away from the real 
reasons the war in Iraq will not end anytime soon.
  Many now agree that we must change our policy and extricate ourselves 
from the mess in Iraq. They cite a mandate from the American people for 
a new direction. This opinion is now more popular and, thus, now more 
wildly held by politicians in Washington. But there is always a 
qualifier. We can't simply stop funding the war because we must support 
the troops. I find this conclusion bizarre. It means one either 
believes the support-the-troops propaganda put out by the original 
promoters of the war, or that one actually is for the war after all, 
despite the public protestations.
  In reality, support for the status quo and the President's troop 
surge in Iraq means expanding the war to include Syria and Iran. The 
naval buildup in the region and the proxy war we just fought to take 
over Somalia demonstrate the administration's intention to escalate our 
current war into something larger.
  There is just no legitimacy to the argument that voting against 
funding the war somehow harms our troops. Perpetuating and escalating 
the war only serves those whose egos are attached to some claimed 
victory in Iraq

[[Page 1630]]

and those with a determination to engineer regime change in Iran.
  Don't believe for a minute that additional congressional funding is 
needed so our troops can defend themselves or extricate themselves from 
the war zone. That is nonsense. The DOD has hundreds of billions of 
dollars in the pipeline available to move troops anywhere on Earth, 
including home.
  We shouldn't forget that the administration took $600 million from 
the war in Afghanistan and used it in Iraq before any direct 
appropriations were made for the invasion of Iraq. Funds are always 
available to put troops in harm's way. They, likewise, are always 
available for leaving a war zone.
  Those in Congress who claim they want the war ended, yet feel 
compelled to keep funding it, are badly misguided. They either are 
wrong in their assessment that cutting funds would hurt the troops, or 
they need to be more honest about supporting a policy destined to 
dramatically increase the size and the scope of this war. Rest assured, 
one can be patriotic and truly support the troops by denying funds to 
perpetuate and spread this ill-advised war.
  The sooner we come to this realization, the better it will be for all 
of us.

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