Congress AWOL

LewRockwell.com ^ | 2/4/2004 | Ron Paul

[Burkeman1]

Before the US House of Representatives, February 4, 2004

There is plenty of blame to go around for the mistakes made by going to war in Iraq, especially now that it is common knowledge Saddam Hussein told the truth about having no weapons of mass destruction, and that Al Qaida and 9/11 were in no way related to the Iraqi government.

Our intelligence agencies failed for whatever reason this time, but their frequent failures should raise the question of whether or not secretly spending forty billion taxpayer dollars annually gathering bad information is a good investment. The administration certainly failed us by making the decision to sacrifice so much in life and limb, by plunging us into this Persian Gulf quagmire that surely will last for years to come.

But before Congress gets too carried away with condemning the administration or the intelligence gathering agencies, it ought to look to itself. A proper investigation and debate by this Congress – as we’re now scrambling to accomplish – clearly was warranted prior to any decision to go to war. An open and detailed debate on a proper declaration of war certainly would have revealed that U.S. national security was not threatened – and the whole war could have been avoided. Because Congress did not do that, it deserves the greatest criticism for its dereliction of duty.

There was a precise reason why the most serious decision made by a country – the decision to go to war – was assigned in our Constitution to the body closest to the people. If we followed this charge I’m certain fewer wars would be fought, wide support would be achieved for just defensive wars, there would be less political finger-pointing if events went badly, and blame could not be placed on one individual or agency. This process would more likely achieve victory, which has eluded us in recent decades.

The president reluctantly has agreed to support an independent commission to review our intelligence gathering failures, and that is good. Cynics said nothing much would be achieved by studying pre-9/11 intelligence failures, but it looks like some objective criticisms will emerge from that inquiry. We can hope for the best from this newly appointed commission.

But already we hear the inquiry will be deliberately delayed, limited to investigating only the failures of the intelligence agencies themselves, and may divert its focus to studying intelligence gathering related to North Korea and elsewhere. If the commission avoids the central controversy – whether or not there was selective use of information or undue pressure put on the CIA to support a foregone conclusion to go to war by the administration – the commission will appear a sham.

Regardless of the results, the process of the inquiry is missing the most important point – the failure of Congress to meet its responsibility on the decision to go, or not go, to war. The current mess was predictable from the beginning. Unfortunately, Congress voluntarily gave up its prerogative over war and illegally transferred this power to the president in October of 2002. The debate we are having now should have occurred here in the halls of Congress then. We should have debated a declaration of war resolution. Instead, Congress chose to transfer this decision-making power to the president to avoid the responsibility of making the hard choice of sending our young people into harms way, against a weak, third world country. This the president did on his own, with congressional acquiescence. The blame game has emerged only now that we are in the political season. Sadly, the call for and the appointment of the commission is all part of this political process.

It is truly disturbing to see many who abdicated their congressional responsibility to declare or reject war, who timidly voted to give the president the power he wanted, now posturing as his harshest critics.

Dr. Ron Paul is a Republican member of Congress from Texas.

[GeronL]

Lew Rockwell and his guys make sense on the economy....

....but not the war

[Terpfen]

"There is plenty of blame to go around for the mistakes made by going to war in Iraq, especially now that it is common knowledge Saddam Hussein told the truth about having no weapons of mass destruction, and that Al Qaida and 9/11 were in no way related to the Iraqi government."

Just because there are at least three sources which say this, technically making it "common knowledge," that does not mean it is the TRUTH. There is a difference. It is "common knowledge" that Bush stole the election because there are at least three separate sources that claim that--DNC, Michael Moore, Al Gore--but is it the truth? No.

Talk about playing fast and loose with the facts.

[Burkeman1]

Think of the military as just another Federal bureaucracy. They simply grow and always want to grow. Why do some conservatives think the military is different from any other federal program? The welfare and warfare state go hand in hand. They feed each other.

It is truly disturbing to see many who abdicated their congressional responsibility to declare or reject war, who timidly voted to give the president the power he wanted, now posturing as his harshest critics.

Here here. The Dems now want to nitpick the WMD story line of the Admin when they themselves were lemmings and went along with it? The only people who can criticize Bush over the war and not be hypocrites are, oddly enough- right wingers who were agaisnt this war from the start like Ron Paul. That the Dem warmongers (like Kerry) try to criticize Bush now is disgusting.

[Burkeman1]

Let's stop this. Bush himself has rightly called for an Independent commission to find out where our intel failed. The debate is over about WMD and AQ ties in Iraq. We were wrong and we want to find out why.

[Coleus]

http://www.stoptheftaa.org

[ValenB4]

You're halfway there. In a few years you'll likely agree with LRC and his guys on the war as well.

[cyborg]

heh you're right

[Terpfen]

No, we weren't wrong.

The question is not, "Why was our intelligence bad?" The question is, "Where are the WMDs now?" There are simply too many reports of armed convoys leaving Iraq, ships sailing in circles in the middle of the ocean, and far too many destroyed records. We've discovered one of the mobile biolabs, and troops on the charge to Baghdad found chemical weapons in the Euphrates River. Iraqi frontline soldiers were issued hazardous materials suits. Then there's the issue of Saddam cutting $25,000 checks to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers, his training of terrorists at Salmon Pak, and Mohammad Atta meeting an Iraqi intelligence official in Prague.

I'll believe the WMDs are gone when documents are uncovered which list the quantities undeclared to the UN, when they were destroyed, where they were destroyed, and when these documents are authenticated. In the meantime, I'll be asking myself, "Where are the WMDs?"

I'm sure a little bit of Iraq's WMDs are being cleaned out of the Senate office building right now...

[jolie560]

...."against a weak, third world country"...

HUH?

[Drammach]

No mention of the emasculation of the CIA some 10 years ago..

What was it called?
The Church Commission?

No mention of how they took away the CIA's ability to do it's job, to use sources of "ill repute", of a "criminal nature or background", etc...
Only honest, upstanding foreign citizens willing to spy on their own country need apply..
Sure cuts down on the available work force, doesn't it??

Let's just have a mass hanging of the 18th Congress on the Capital steps and start over..
Naahh.. Just end up with a fresh set of traitors..

[Texasforever]

The debate is over about WMD and AQ ties in Iraq

You wish.

[Texasforever]

The last thing FR needs is association with the John Birch Society.

[Drammach]

Reviewing my post:::
Change "18th Congress" to 108th Congress..
I think everyone from the 18th Congress is already dead..

[MissAmericanPie]

I know one thing, the "commission" won't find that it was liberal's neutering of the CIA that has led to it's ineffectivness. No that would the be the truth and we can't have that.

Islam is big on humiliation and honor, through out history Islam has raised it's ugly head and become aggressive until it has it's tail handed to it. Then broken and sullen they retreat back under their rocks for a few centuries.

We won a psycological victory taking out Iraq with such ease. There is no way to ever know that there were indeed no WMD's unless we go into Syria. Beating that dead horse is a waste of time. They have no way to prove they don't exist based merely on the fact that they have not been found.

[GeronL]

should I be offended or not? =o)

[ValenB4]

Absolutely not. It's meant as a compliment. Anyone reading Mises is on the right track towards being a true conservative. As in my case, the views on Mises & LRC will challenge and occasionally irritate. You may swear them off but once you're interested and learning, it's inevitable that you'll go back.

[Burkeman1]

Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Iran, Saudia Arabia- all of wich border Iraq did not fear Sadaam and yet we did? Preposterous.