- Mr. Speaker, it breaks my heart to see what is happening
to our country today. All Americans have grieved over the losses served
on 9-11. The grief for those who lost loved ones is beyond description.
These losses have precipitated unprecedented giving to help the families
left behind. Unless one has suffered directly, it is difficult to fully
comprehend the tragic and sudden loss of close friends and family.
-
- There are some who, in addition to feeling this huge
sense of personal loss that all Americans share, grieve for other serious
and profound reasons. For instance, many thoughtful Americans are convinced
that the tragedy of 9-11 was preventable. Since that may well be true,
this provokes a tragic sadness, especially for those who understand how
the events of 9-11 needlessly came about.
-
- The reason why this is so sad and should be thoroughly
understood is that so often the ones who suggest how our policies may have
played a role in evoking the attacks are demonized as unpatriotic and are
harshly dismissed as belonging to the ``blame America crowd.''
-
- Those who are so anxious to condemn do not realize that
the policies of the American Government, designed by politicians and bureaucrats,
are not always synonymous with American ideals. The country is not the
same as the Government. The spirit of America is hardly something for which
the Government holds a monopoly on defining.
-
- America's heart and soul is more embedded in our love
of liberty, self-reliance, and tolerance than by our foreign policy, driven
by powerful special interests with little regard for the Constitution.
Throughout our early history, a policy of minding our own business and
avoiding entangling alliances, as George Washington admonished, was more
representative of American ideals than those we have pursued for the past
50 years. Some sincere Americans have suggested that our modern interventionist
policy set the stage for the attacks of 9-11, and for this, they are condemned
as being unpatriotic.
-
- This compounds the sadness and heartbreak that some Americans
are feeling. Threats, loss of jobs, censorship and public mockery have
been heaped upon those who have made this suggestion. Freedom of expression
and thought, the bedrock of the American Republic, is now too often condemned
as something viciously evil. This should cause freedom-loving Americans
to weep from broken hearts.
-
- Another reason the hearts of many Americans are heavy
with grief is because they dread what might come from the many new and
broad powers the Government is demanding in the name of providing security.
Daniel Webster once warned, ``Human beings will generally exercise power
when they can get it, and they will exercise it most undoubtedly in popular
governments under pretense of public safety.'' A strong case can be made
that the Government regulations, along with a lack of private property
responsibility, contributed to this tragedy, but what is proposed? More
regulations and even a takeover of all airport security by the Government.
-
- We are not even considering restoring the rights of pilots
to carry weapons for self-defense as one of the solutions. Even though
pilots once carried guns to protect the mail and armored truck drivers
can still carry guns to protect money, protecting passengers with guns
is prohibited on commercial flights. The U.S. Air Force can shoot down
a wayward aircraft, but a pilot cannot shoot down an armed terrorist. It
will be difficult to solve our problems with this attitude toward airport
security.
-
- Civil liberties are sure to suffer under today's tensions,
with the people demanding that the politicians do something, anything.
Should those who object to the rapid move toward massively increasing the
size and scope of the Federal Government in local law enforcement be considered
un-American because they defend the principles they truly understand to
be American?
-
- Any talk of spending restraint is now a thing of the
past. We had one anthrax death, and we are asked the next day for a billion
dollar appropriations to deal with the problem.
-
- And a lot more will be appropriated before it is all
over. What about the 40,000 deaths per year on government-run highways
and the needless deaths associated with the foolish and misdirected war
on drugs? Why should anyone be criticized for trying to put this in proper
perspective?
-
- Countless groups are now descending on Washington with
their hands out. As usual, as with any disaster, this disaster is being
parlayed into an opportunity, as one former Member of the Congress phrased
it. The economic crisis that started a long time before 9-11 has contributed
to the number of those now demanding Federal handouts.
-
- But there is one business that we need not fear will
go into a slump: The Washington lobbying industry. Last year, it spent
$1.6 billion lobbying Congress. This year, it will spend much more. The
bigger the disaster, the greater the number of vultures wo descend on Washington.
When I see this happening, it breaks my heart, because liberty and America
suffers, and it is all done in the name of justice, equality and security.
-
- Emotions are running high in our Nation's capital, and
in politics emotions are more powerful tools than reason and the rule of
law. The use of force to serve special interests and help anyone who claims
to be in need unfortunately is an acceptable practice. Obeying the restraints
placed in the Constitution is seen as archaic and insensitive to the people's
needs. But far too often the claims of responding to human tragedies are
nothing more than politics as usual. While one group supports bailing out
the corporations, another wants to prop up wages and jobs. One group supports
federalizing tens of thousands of airport jobs to increase union membership,
while another says we should subsidize corporate interests and keep the
jobs private.
-
- Envy and power drives both sides, the special interests
of big business and the demands of the welfare redistributionists.
-
- There are many other reasons to make one sad with all
that is going on today. In spite of the fact that our government has done
such a poor job protecting us and has no intention of changing the policy
of meddling overseas, which has contributed to our problems, the people
are more dependent on and more satisfied with government than they have
been in decades, while demanding even more government control and intrusion
in their daily lives.
-
- It is aggravating to listen to the daily rhetoric regarding
liberty and the Constitution while the same people participate in their
destruction. It is aggravating to see all the money spent and civil liberties
abused while the pilot's right to carry guns in self-defense is denied.
It is even more aggravating to see our government rely on foreign AWACS
aircraft to provide security to U.S. territory. A $325 billion military
budget, and we cannot even patrol our own shores. This, of course, is just
another sign of how little we are concerned about U.S. sovereignty and
how willing we are to submit to international government.
-
- It is certainly disappointing that our congressional
leaders and administration have not considered using letters of marque
and reprisal as an additional tool to root out those who participated in
the 9-11 attacks. The difficulty in finding bin Laden and his supporters
make marque and reprisal quite an appropriate option in this effort.
-
- We already hear of plans to install and guarantee the
next government of Afghanistan. Getting bin Laden and his gang is one thing,
nation-building is quite another. Some of our trouble in the Middle East
started years ago when our CIA put the Shah in charge of Iran.
-
- It was 25 years before he was overthrown, and the hatred
toward America continues to this day. Those who suffer from our intervention
have long memories.
-
- Our support for the less than ethical government of Saudi
Arabia, with our troops occupying what most Muslims consider sacred land,
is hardly the way to bring peace to the Middle East. A policy driven by
our fear of losing control over the oil fields in the Middle East has not
contributed to American Security. Too many powerful special interests drive
our policy in this region, and this does little to help us preserve security
for Americans here at home.
-
- As we bomb Afghanistan, we continue to send foreign aid
to feed the people suffering from the war. I strongly doubt if our food
will get them to love us or even be our friends. There is no evidence that
the starving receive the food. And too often it is revealed that it ends
up in the hands of the military forces we are fighting. While we bomb Afghanistan
and feed the victims, we lay plans to install the next government and pay
for rebuilding the country. Quite possibly, the new faction we support
will be no more trustworthy than the Taliban, to which we sent plenty of
aid and weapons in the 1980s. That intervention in Afghanistan did not
do much to win reliable friends in the region.
-
- It just may be that Afghanistan would be best managed
by several tribal factions, without any strong centralized government and
without any outside influence, certainly not by the U.N. But then again,
some claim that the proposed Western financed pipeline through northern
Afghanistan can only happen after a strong centralized pro-Western government
is put in place.
-
- It is both annoying and sad that there is so little interest
by anyone in Washington in free market solutions to the world's economic
problems. True private ownership of property without regulation and abusive
taxation is a thing of the past. Few understand how the Federal Reserve
monetary policy causes the booms and the busts that, when severe, as now,
only serve to enhance the prestige of the money managers while most politicians
and Wall Streeters demand that the Fed inflate the currency at an even
more rapid rate. Today's conditions give license to the politicians to
spend our way out of recession, they hope.
-
- One thing for sure, as a consequence of the recession
and the 9-11 tragedy, is that big spending and deficits are alive and well.
Even though we are currently adding to the national debt at the rate of
$150 billion per year, most politicians still claim that Social Security
is sound and has not been touched. At least the majority of American citizens
are now wise enough to know better.
-
- There is plenty of reason to feel heartbroken over current
events. It is certainly not a surprise or illogical for people working
in Washington to overreact to the anthrax scare. The feelings of despondency
are understandable, whether due to the loss of lives, loss of property,
fear of the next attack, or concerned at our own frantic efforts to enhance
security will achieve little. But broken or sad hearts need not break our
spirits nor impede our reasoning.
-
- I happen to believe that winning this battle against
the current crop of terrorists is quite achievable in a relatively short
period of time. But winning the war over the long term is a much different
situation. This cannot be achieved without a better understanding of the
enemy and the geopolitics that drive this war. Even if relative peace is
achieved with a battle victory over Osama bin Laden and his followers,
other terrorists will appear from all corners of the world for an indefinite
period of time if we do not understand the issues.
-
- Changing our current foreign policy with wise diplomacy
is crucial if we are to really win the war and restore the sense of tranquility
to our land that now seems to be so far in our distant past. Our widespread
efforts of peacekeeping and nation-building will only contribute to the
resentment that drives the fanatics. Devotion to internationalism and a
one-world government only exacerbates regional rivalries. Denying that
our economic interests drive so much of what the West does against the
East impedes any efforts to diffuse the world crisis that already has a
number of Americans demanding nuclear bombs to be used to achieve victory.
A victory based on this type of aggressive policy would be a hollow victory
indeed.
-
- I would like to draw analogy between the drug war and
the war against terrorism. In the last 30 years, we have spent hundreds
of billions of dollars on a failed war on drugs. This war has been used
as an excuse to attack our liberties and privacy. It has been an excuse
to undermine our financial privacy while promoting illegal searches and
seizures with many innocent people losing their lives and property. Seizure
and forfeiture have harmed a great number of innocent American citizens.
-
- Another result of this unwise war has been the corruption
of many law enforcement officials. It is well known that with the profit
incentives so high, we are not even able to keep drugs out of our armed
prisons. Making our whole society a prison would not bring success to this
floundering war on drugs. Sinister motives of the profiteers and gangsters,
along with prevailing public ignorance, keeps this futile war going.
-
- Illegal and artificially high priced drugs drive the
underworld to produce, sell and profit from this social depravity. Failure
to recognize that drug addiction, like alcoholism, is a disease rather
than a crime, encourage the drug warriors in efforts that have not and
will not ever work. We learned the hard way about alcohol prohibition and
crime, but we have not yet seriously considered it in the ongoing drug
war.
-
- Corruption associated with the drug dealers is endless.
It has involved our police, the military, border guards and the judicial
system. It has affected government policy and our own CIA. The artificially
high profits from illegal drugs provide easy access to funds for rogue
groups involved in fighting civil wars throughout the world.
-
- Ironically, opium sales by the Taliban and artificially
high prices helped to finance their war against us. In spite of the incongruity,
we rewarded the Taliban this spring with a huge cash payment for promises
to eradicate some poppy fields. Sure.
-
- For the first 140 years of our history, we had essentially
no Federal war on drugs, and far fewer problems with drug addiction and
related crimes was a consequence. In the past 30 years, even with the hundreds
of millions of dollars spent on the drug war, little good has come of it.
We have vacillated from efforts to stop the drugs at the source to severely
punishing the users, yet nothing has improved.
-
- This war has been behind most big government policy powers
of the last 30 years, with continual undermining of our civil liberties
and personal privacy. Those who support the IRS's efforts to collect maximum
revenues and root out the underground economy, have welcomed this intrusion,
even if the drug underworld grows in size and influence.
-
- The drug war encourages violence. Government violence
against nonviolent users is notorious and has led to the unnecessary prison
overpopulation. Innocent taxpayers are forced to pay for all this so-called
justice. Our eradication project through spraying around the world, from
Colombia to Afghanistan, breeds resentment because normal crops and good
land can be severely damaged. Local populations perceive that the efforts
and the profiteering remain somehow beneficial to our own agenda in these
various countries.
-
- Drug dealers and drug gangs are a consequence of our
unwise approach to drug usage. Many innocent people are killed in the crossfire
by the mob justice that this war generates. But just because the laws are
unwise and have had unintended consequences, no excuses can ever be made
for the monster who would kill and maim innocent people for illegal profits.
But as the violent killers are removed from society, reconsideration of
our drug laws ought to occur.
-
- A similar approach should be applied to our war on those
who would terrorize and kill our people for political reasons. If the drug
laws and the policies that incite hatred against the United States are
not clearly understood and, therefore, never changed, the number of drug
criminals and terrorists will only multiply.
-
- Although this unwise war on drugs generates criminal
violence, the violence can never be tolerated. Even if repeal of drug laws
would decrease the motivation for drug dealer violence, this can never
be an excuse to condone the violence. On the short term, those who kill
must be punished, imprisoned, or killed. Long term though, a better understanding
of how drug laws have unintended consequences is required if we want to
significantly improve the situation and actually reduce the great harms
drugs are doing to our society.
-
- The same is true in dealing with those who so passionately
hate us that suicide becomes a just and noble cause in their effort to
kill and terrorize us. Without some understanding of what has brought us
to the brink of a worldwide conflict in reconsidering our policies around
the globe, we will be no more successful in making our land secure and
free than the drug war has been in removing drug violence from our cities
and towns.
-
- Without some understanding why terrorism is directed
towards the United States, we may well build a prison for ourselves with
something called homeland security while doing nothing to combat the root
causes of terrorism. Let us hope we figure this out soon. We have promoted
a foolish and very expensive domestic war on drugs for more than 30 years.
It has done no good whatsoever. I doubt our Republic can survive a 30-year
period of trying to figure out how to win this guerilla war against terrorism.
Hopefully, we will all seek the answers in these trying times with an open
mind and understanding.
- Comment
-
- From Jerry L. Gardner
krashnburn1010@aol.com
10-29-1
-
- Dear Jeff,
-
- I am not sure just how to get in touch with Rep. Ron
Paul, but I have been following his articles on your site. I just read,
"A sad state of affairs," and I thought to myself, how on earth
did this man ever get elected in America today? He is like listening to
George Washington, Jefferson Davis, Thomas Jefferson, Nathan Hale, along
with all the framers of our great constitution all at once. When I read
Ron's articles, I feel like I am sitting in the midst of the original congress
of our great United States, at the birthing of the greatest nation on earth,
during the latter 1700s.
-
- Ron Paul had to be elected by accident because there
is no other in Washington, or at any State level politics that are his
equal. What truth! What courage! A lamb in a den of lions. It takes guts
to struggle against the currents of the contemporary political tide today.
It takes tremendous courage to stand with the "few" patriots
who speak out against wrong, and evil today, those who refuse to get caught
up in mass, emotional hysterms."
-
- This man makes me proud to be an American (and I'm not
an easy man to impress) even when pride today is difficult to muster. We
must remember, today the target is the constitution of the United States,
tomorrow it will be the Holy Bible. George Washington told us in so many
words, it is impossible to have one without the other.
-
- Thank you
Representative Ron Paul.
-
- Jerry L. Gardner Omegaman2u@AOL.COM NC
-
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