[Vision2020] Questions That Won't Be Asked

[Tim Lohrmann]

Visionaries,
   Ron Paul may have been on to a few issues here,
huh?
   TL


> Questions That Won't Be Asked About Iraq
> by Rep. Ron Paul, MD <http://www.house.gov/paul>
>
 In the House of Representatives, September 10, 2002
> Soon we hope to have hearings on the pending war
> with Iraq. I am concerned
> there are some questions that won’t be asked – and
> maybe will not even be
> allowed to be asked.  Here are some questions I
> would like answered by those
> who are urging us to start this war.
> 
1. Is it not true that the reason we did not bomb
> the Soviet Union at the
> height of the Cold War was because we knew they
> could retaliate?
> 
2. Is it not also true that we are willing to bomb
> Iraq now because we know
> it cannot retaliate – which just confirms that there
> is no real threat?
> 
3. Is it not true that those who argue that even
> with inspections we cannot
> be sure that Hussein might be hiding weapons, at the
> same time imply that we
> can be more sure that weapons exist in the absence
> of inspections?
> 
4. Is it not true that the UN’s International Atomic
> Energy Agency was able
> to complete its yearly verification mission to Iraq
> just this year with
> Iraqi cooperation?
> 
5. Is it not true that the intelligence community
> has been unable to develop
> a case tying Iraq to global terrorism at all, much
> less the attacks on the
> United States last year? Does anyone remember that
> 15 of the 19 hijackers
> came from Saudi Arabia and that none came from Iraq?
> 
6. Was former CIA counter-terrorism chief Vincent
> Cannistraro wrong when he
> recently said there is no confirmed evidence of
> Iraq’s links to terrorism?
> 
7. Is it not true that the CIA has concluded there
> is no evidence that a
> Prague meeting between 9/11 hijacker Atta and Iraqi
> intelligence took place?
> 
8. Is it not true that northern Iraq, where the
> administration claimed
> al-Qaeda were hiding out, is in the control of our
> "allies," the Kurds?
> 
9. Is it not true that the vast majority of al-Qaeda
> leaders who escaped
> appear to have safely made their way to Pakistan,
> another of our so-called
> allies?
> 
10. Has anyone noticed that Afghanistan is rapidly
> sinking into total chaos,
> with bombings and assassinations becoming daily
> occurrences; and that
> according to a recent UN report the al-Qaeda "is, by
> all accounts, alive and
> well and poised to strike again, how, when, and
> where it chooses"?
> 
11. Why are we taking precious military and
> intelligence resources away from
> tracking down those who did attack the United States
> – and who may again
> attack the United States – and using them to invade
> countries that have not
> attacked the United States?
> 
> 
12. Would an attack on Iraq not just confirm the
> Arab world's worst
> suspicions about the US – and isn't this what bin
> Laden wanted?
> 
> 13. How can Hussein be compared to Hitler when he
> has no navy or air force,
> and now has an army 1/5 the size of twelve years
> ago, which even then proved
> totally inept at defending the country?
> 
14. Is it not true that the constitutional power to
> declare war is
> exclusively that of the Congress? Should presidents,
> contrary to the
> Constitution, allow Congress to concur only when
> pressured by public
> opinion? Are presidents permitted to rely on the UN
> for permission to go to
> war?
> 
15. Are you aware of a Pentagon report studying
> charges that thousands of
> Kurds in one village were gassed by the Iraqis,
> which found no conclusive
> evidence that Iraq was responsible, that Iran
> occupied the very city
> involved, and that evidence indicated the type of
> gas used was more likely
> controlled by Iran not Iraq?
> 
16. Is it not true that anywhere between 100,000 and
> 300,000 US soldiers
> have suffered from Persian Gulf War syndrome from
> the first Gulf War, and
> that thousands may have died?
> 
17. Are we prepared for possibly thousands of
> American casualties in a war
> against a country that does not have the capacity to
> attack the United
> States?
> 
18. Are we willing to bear the economic burden of a
> $100 billion war against
> Iraq, with oil prices expected to skyrocket and
> further rattle an already
> shaky American economy? How about an estimated 30
> years occupation of Iraq
> that some have deemed necessary to "build democracy"
> there?
> 
19. Iraq’s alleged violations of UN resolutions are
> given as reason to
> initiate an attack, yet is it not true that hundreds
> of UN Resolutions have
> been ignored by various countries without penalty?
> 
20. Did former President Bush not cite the UN
> Resolution of 1990 as the
> reason he could not march into Baghdad, while
> supporters of a new attack
> assert that it is the very reason we can march into
> Baghdad?
> 
21. Is it not true that, contrary to current claims,
> the no-fly zones were
> set up by Britain and the United States without
> specific approval from the
> United Nations?
> 
22. If we claim membership in the international
> community and conform to its
> rules only when it pleases us, does this not serve
> to undermine our
> position, directing animosity toward us by both
> friend and foe?
> 
23. How can our declared goal of bringing democracy
> to Iraq be believable
> when we prop up dictators throughout the Middle East
> and support military
> tyrants like Musharraf in Pakistan, who overthrew a
> democratically-elected
> president?
> 
24. Are you familiar with the 1994 Senate Hearings
> that revealed the U.S.
> knowingly supplied chemical and biological materials
> to Iraq during the
> Iran-Iraq war and as late as 1992 – including after
> the alleged Iraqi gas
> attack on a Kurdish village?
> 
25. Did we not assist Saddam Hussein’s rise to power
> by supporting and
> encouraging his invasion of Iran? Is it honest to
> criticize Saddam now for
> his invasion of Iran, which at the time we actively
> supported?
> 
26. Is it not true that preventive war is synonymous
> with an act of
> aggression, and has never been considered a moral or
> legitimate US policy?
> 
27. Why do the oil company executives strongly
> support this war if oil is
> not the real reason we plan to take over Iraq?
> 
28. Why is it that those who never wore a uniform
> and are confident that
> they won’t have to personally fight this war are
> more anxious for this war
> than our generals?
> 
29. What is the moral argument for attacking a
> nation that has not initiated
> aggression against us, and could not if it wanted?
> 
30. Where does the Constitution grant us permission
> to wage war for any
> reason other than self-defense?
> 
31. Is it not true that a war against Iraq rejects
> the sentiments of the
> time-honored Treaty of Westphalia, nearly 400 years
> ago, that countries
> should never go into another for the purpose of
> regime change?
> 
32. Is it not true that the more civilized a society
> is, the less likely
> disagreements will be settled by war?
> 
33. Is it not true that since World War II Congress
> has not declared war
> and – not coincidentally – we have not since then
> had a clear-cut victory?
> 
34. Is it not true that Pakistan, especially through
> its intelligence
> services, was an active supporter and key organizer
> of the Taliban?
> 
35. Why don't those who want war bring a formal
> declaration of war
> resolution to the floor of Congress?
> 
Dr. Ron Paul is a Republican member of Congress from
> Texas.
> 
> 


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