On the 5 year anniversary of the neo-conservative war for oil, Congressman Ron Paul issues a pointed statement of opposition. Below is the full text of Congressman Paul's statement.
"The occupation of Iraq began five years ago today, but few realize that the march to war began ten years ago under Bill Clinton, when regime change became official U.S. policy. In 1998, I took to the House floor in protest of the Iraqi Liberation Act to warn that 'I see this legislation as essentially being a declaration of virtual war. It is giving the President tremendous powers to pursue war efforts against a sovereign Nation.' My warnings were largely dismissed at the time, but five years later, we were bombing Iraq.
"After five years of occupation, today is a good time for reflection. The cost to America has been great: 4,000 soldiers are dead, 30,000 have been severely wounded, and over 100,000 have applied for disability. In addition, the war has put a tremendous strain on our economy. As we spiral toward recession and experience an assault on our dollar, we spend $12 billion per month financing our Iraqi operations. The war has cost us nearly $1 trillion dollars, or over $3,300 per American man, woman, and child.
"In a recent presidential debate, I was asked whether the war was 'worth it.' I said, and still say, 'absolutely not.' In addition to the tremendous costs to America, the war has been helpful to our enemies. The war has strengthened Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda, and Iran. And yet the other presidential candidates want to keep troops there for at least five more years. One even says we should keep American troops in Iraq for 100 years.
"As I have repeatedly said when discussing United States policy in Iraq, when you find yourself going the wrong way down a one-way street, you need to look for the nearest off-ramp. The only solution to the mess in Iraq is to promptly bring our troops home. Our bad policy spans at least ten years and two presidents and has had severe costs in lives and economic consequences. Continuing down the same road will solve nothing and compound our already substantial problems."
For more information on this issue, please read:
The Shroud of the War Machine
The war machine, fueled by the military-industrial-complex, had put "regime change" in motion long before President Bush took office. Ron Paul warned us of the coming bloodshed. We just didn't listen.
©2008 Jake Morphonios, all rights reserved. You must have written permission from the author in order to republish this work.
Published: Thursday, March 20, 2008
Last modified: Thursday, March 20, 2008
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Reader Comments:
Posted By: Libertas
Date: 2008-03-20 15:09:21
Actually, Ron Paul did not tell us specifically anything but told congress of the warning, since the "machine" has had its plan in place for a lot longer than 10 years, the fact is everyone in this country needs to wake up and look at our history over the past 50-70 years. They would be seriously disturbed to know what has been going on in washington.
This and many others are why Ron Paul has cured apathy among voters.
Posted By: Jessie Jones
Date: 2008-03-20 18:26:04
Less talk from Paul...more actions.
Posted By: Christopher Espinal
Date: 2008-03-20 21:59:38
It's funny how people continue to talk about the War in Iraq for oil as a bad thing. Everyone here is so worried about recessions and such....just imagine if we were to let that region of the world crumble....taking the worlds largest oil supply with it.
Or better yet, let's leave our oil supply to terrorist organizations that want to destroy us if it's the last thing they do.
Sure we probably incited hatred but we need energy to keep our economy rolling.
--CE
Posted By: Geo
Date: 2008-03-22 21:09:02
Posted By: Christopher Espinal
"Or better yet, let's leave our oil supply to terrorist organizations that want to destroy us if it's the last thing they do."
Yes great war, now the close family of 9/11 mastermind and/or the origin country of 19 perpetrators, who happens to be the world largest oil supplier, happily collects now four times more money for each oil barrel produce, not only from the U.S. consumers but worldwide.
I've heard, they build really nice mosque over there in which they pray for America.
Thanks to peoples like us, it's only the beginning!
Viva la war!