[NYTr] Ron Paul: Getting Iraq War Funding WRong Again

[nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com]

Texas Straight Talk - Apr 30, 2007
http://www.house.gov/paul/tst/tst2007/tst043007.htm

Getting Iraq War Funding Wrong Again 

by Ron Paul

This week, Congress finalized the controversial $124 billion Iraq
emergency supplemental spending bill, with the House and Senate both
voting in favor of final passage. The majority of my Republican
colleagues and I voted against this measure, and the president has
vowed to veto the legislation.

In this final version, the House leadership retained billions of
dollars in pork meant to attract skeptical votes, retained a
watered-down version of the problematic �benchmarks� that seek to
micromanage the war effort, and continued to play politics with the
funding of critical veterans medical and other assistance. In other
words, this final version was even worse than the original in almost
all respects.

As I wrote when this measure first came before the House, we have to
make a clear distinction between the Constitutional authority of
Congress to make foreign policy, and the Constitutional authority of
the president, as commander in chief, to direct the management of any
military operation. We do no favor to the troops by micromanaging the
war from Capitol Hill while continuing to fund it beyond the
president�s request.

If one is unhappy with our progress in Iraq after four years of war,
voting to de-fund the war makes sense. If one is unhappy with the
manner in which we went to war, without a constitutional declaration,
voting against funding for that war makes equally good sense. What
occurred, however, was the worst of both. Democrats, dissatisfied with
the way the war is being fought, gave the president all the money he
asked for and more to keep fighting it, while demanding that he fight
it in the manner they see fit. That is definitely not a recipe for
success in Iraq and foreign policy in general.

What is the best way forward in Iraq? Where do we go from here? First,
Congress should admit its mistake in unconstitutionally transferring
war power to the president and in citing United Nations resolutions as
justification for war against Iraq. We should never go to war because
another nation has violated a United Nations resolution. Then we should
repeal the authority given to the president in 2002 and disavow
presidential discretion in starting wars. Then we should start bringing
our troops home in the safest manner possible.

Though many will criticize the president for mis-steps in Iraq and at
home, it is with the willing participation of Congress, through
measures like this war funding bill, that our policy continues to veer
off course. Additionally, it is with the complicity of Congress that we
have become a nation of pre-emptive war, secret military tribunals,
torture, rejection of habeas corpus, warrantless searches, undue
government secrecy, extraordinary renditions, and uncontrolled spying
on the American people. Fighting over there has nothing to do with
preserving freedoms here at home. More likely the opposite is
true.