[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 6616]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




       DEVELOPING A SENSIBLE, NON-INTERVENTIONIST FOREIGN POLICY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Paul) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PAUL. Mr. Speaker, Osama bin Laden applauded the 9/11 attacks. 
Such an act of deliberate killing of innocent lives deserves 
retribution. It is good that bin Laden is dead and justice is served. 
Targeted retribution is far superior to wars of aggression and nation-
building.
  In 2001, I supported giving the President authority to punish those 
responsible for the vicious 9/11 attacks. Using this authority and 
opportunity to pursue nation-building and remaking the Middle East was 
cynical and dangerous, as the past 10 years have proven. The sad 
tragedy is that it took 10 years, trillions of dollars, tens of 
thousands of American casualties and many thousands of innocent lives 
to achieve our mission of killing one evil person.
  A narrow, targeted mission under these circumstances is far superior 
to initiating wars against countries not involved in the 9/11 attacks. 
This was the reason I emphasized at the time the principles of marque 
and reprisal, provided to us by the Constitution for difficult missions 
such as we faced. I am convinced that this approach would have achieved 
our goal much sooner and much cheaper.
  The elimination of Osama bin Laden should now prompt us to bring our 
troops home from Afghanistan and Iraq. Al Qaeda was never in Iraq, and 
we were supposedly in Afghanistan to get Osama bin Laden. With bin 
Laden gone, there is no reason for our presence in this region, unless 
indeed it was all about oil, nation-building and remaking the Middle 
East and Central Asia.
  Hopefully, bin Laden does not get the last laugh. He claimed the 9/11 
attacks were designed to, number one, get America to spread its 
military dangerously and excessively throughout the Middle East; two, 
to cause political dissension within the United States. Seventy percent 
of the American people now believe we should leave Afghanistan, yet 
both parties seem destined to stay; and number three, to bankrupt 
America through excessive military spending, as he did to the Soviets. 
The best thing we can do is prove bin Laden to be a false prophet.
  We must learn from this recent history. Tragically, one result may be 
the acceptance of torture as a legitimate tool for pursuing our foreign 
policy. A free society calling itself a republic should never succumb 
to such evil.
  With regard to foreign aid to Pakistan, the fact that bin Laden was 
safely protected for 10 years in Pakistan should make us question the 
wisdom of robbing American citizens to support any government around 
the world with foreign aid. Our failed foreign policy is reflected in 
our bizarre relationship with Pakistan. We bomb them with our drones, 
causing civilian casualties, we give them billions of dollars in 
foreign aid, and she protects America's enemy number one, bin Laden, 
for a decade.
  It is time to consider a sensible, non-interventionist foreign policy 
as advised by our founders and authorized by our Constitution. We would 
all be better off for it.

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