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All of the Republican candidates placed their hand on a Bible and took an oath before their God and their countrymen to abide by the Constitution.
Dr. Ron Paul is the ONLY candidate who wasn't lying when he performed that first official act of office.
Every other Republican candidate supported violating the Constitution to attack Iraq.
No matter one's position on any particular war, war should only be commenced legally. There's a reason for that, in fact several. No one individual, not President Bush, not a potential President Paul, not even me, should have the power to declare war alone. They are not committing
their children to harms way, they are committing everyone
else's children to death and dismemberment. No one individual should have the ability to use America's young men (much less women) for his own ends.
BTW, Dr. Paul is not against war. He served five years in the military himself as a flight surgeon. He is against
unjust and
unconstitutional war. It was Rep. Paul who drafted legislation to continue to pursue Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda, because they had some culpability in the 9-11 attack. It is Dr. Paul who supported using the Constitutional method of marquise and reprisal to get them, if necessary. In fact, in the GOP debates, Ron Paul is the ONLY one who keeps bringing up the fact that 17 of the 9-11 terrorists were SAUDIS and wondering why we are attacking Iraq, but not even investigating Saudi Arabia. The other candidates go totally silent when he brings this up. They do not even attempt to defend the Saudis or explain why we have ignored their culpability. They just go on as if Dr. Paul hadn't mentioned anything about the Saudis.
Requiring Congressional approval gives opportunity to debate the war BEFORE thousands start dying. It gives the public opportunity to make their wishes known to their own representatives. If there is support for the war, a Congressman will have nothing to fear by voting to declare war. If there is not support for it - from the people who will be making the sacrifice, the Congressman risks alienating his constituency should he violate their will. He risks his reelection, as he should.
War is a horrible thing. It should only be undertaken as a last resort, and with the support of the population. War should only be contemplated when the United States is in direct danger. Constitutionally, war should not be entered to protect other countries, especially ones who are not really our friends. When war is necessary, the goal ought to be to win as fast as possible and get the war over with. The reasons and stakes out to be crystal clear.
With this war on terror, what is the reason we are attacking Iraq? WMDs that didn't exist? Because Saddam was a bad guy? Because they have oil? Because they had little or no role in 9-11? Because they used to have religious freedom and the right to bear arms and more liberty that most Arabic nations? Because we oppose Islam, so we feel we can attack ANY Islamic nation to root it out? To defend a U.N. resolution that Saddam may have violated? We had no business attacking them if we can't name precisely why we needed to do so.
How do we know if we win this war? Didn't our president already declare "Mission Accomplished" about six years ago? Then why are we still there? Does it take six years for the greatest military power on earth to defeat a handful of insurgents? With the Iraqi people supposedly on our side, shouldn't they have been able to easily help us root out those nasty insurgents? In fact, shouldn't they be able to root out a few rogues by themselves? Maybe there is not as much popular support for us being there as we're led to believe. Should we be involved in a war that has little support in America (70% want our troops back home) or in Iraq?
The fact is, like the other undeclared, illegal wars we've been in (Vietnam, Korea, and the U.N. skirmishes), we don't have a clue what constitutes victory. When we enter a war for the right reasons, victory is clear. The bad guys surrender and you conquer them. When Iran, under Ayatollah Khomeini, took our hostages for 444 days in the 1970's, we had every right to go to war with the intent on annexing Iran as the 51st State of the Union. or making a parking lot out of them. That would've had a clear reason and justification for war, a clear victory, and been great incentive to keep any other Muslim nation from pestering America.
How long does it take for us to show them how to have a free society? Who showed us how to do it? Did somebody have to stay and occupy America until we learned how to be free? Either giving them a free society is not what's going on there, or we are wrong to try to push our form of society on somebody else. Imagine trying to enforce freedom at gunpoint. "Be free like us or we'll kill you!" How can we make them free when WE'VE taken away their religious liberty (Islam is now the official State religion, not so under Saddam) and their right to bear arms?
What's the worry about getting a Congressional declaration? Is someone afraid the public might not have supported having their sons and daughters killed to enforce a UN resolution against Saddam? It's easy to be pro-war when you aren't the one making the sacrifice.
It was Rep. Ron Paul who authored the declaration of war for Iraq to make it a lawful war, with Congressional and citizen support. He got almost no support for it. That shows the Congress and President have no problem deciding to kill your children to accomplish their desires. Yet some of you will support the same people who would just as soon kill your own sons to meet their goals.
A really odd thing about this war is that, under the guise of fighting terrorism, American citizens have lost many of their Constitutional protections.. We are now submitted to unconstitutional surveillance as if we are guilty before proven innocent. Our phones are tapped, our emails read, our banking records monitored, and such. All without a warrant, despite the fact that it's easy for them to get a warrant when one is remotely necessary. If anyone (even you or I) is declared an "enemy combatant" (which can be arbitrarily declared by the president) you lose your right to habeas corpus, to be charged, a speedy jury trial, evidence, appeal, conviction, representation, and the presumption of innocence. You can be arrested without cause or charges given and imprisoned for an indeterminate amount of time. Those are the tactics of the Soviet Gulag or Red China. How comfortable will you feel with these powers in the hands of President Hillary? Why in the world should we willingly give up our freedoms so those nasty terrorists don't take them from us? Why don't all you war-on-Iraq supporters give me all your money before some criminal steals it? It's the same logic.
You may feel strongly enough that we need to just "kill them Ayrab Islamofascists", that you're glad we're doing it even without a Constitutional declaration. Well, if our side can skirt the Constitution to get our will done, we have no moral ground to find fault with the liberals for doing the same thing. We have no justification to complain about rogue judges making law from the bench, or finding rights to privacy that allow abortion, if we are skirting the Constitution ourselves. Those of you who favor the war with Iraq without a declaration, are equally guilty of abortion on demand. You allow the principle to be violated. If you support the current war on Iraq, you should shut up about abortion and sodomy. You've forfeited your right to complain about the liberals by adopting their ungodly, immoral practices yourself.
http://www.christiansforronpaul.com/endorse3.htm
