Rand Paul: “I was recently asked why I thought it was a bad idea for the President to initiate a war against Iraq. I responded by…”

“I was recently asked why I thought it was a bad idea for the President to initiate a war against Iraq. I responded by saying that I could easily give a half a dozen reasons why; and if I took a minute, I could give a full dozen. For starters, here is a half a dozen. Number one, Congress has not given the President the legal authority to wage war against Iraq as directed by the Constitution, nor does he have U.N. authority to do so. Even if he did, it would not satisfy the rule of law laid down by the Framers of the Constitution. Number two, Iraq has not initiated aggression against the United States. Invading Iraq and deposing Saddam Hussein, no matter how evil a dictator he may be, has nothing to do with our national security. Iraq does not have a single airplane in its air force and is a poverty-ridden Third World nation, hardly a threat to U.S. security. Stirring up a major conflict in this region will actually jeopardize our security. Number three, a war against Iraq initiated by the United States cannot be morally justified. Arguing that someday in the future Saddam Hussein might pose a threat to us means that any nation any place in the world is subject to an American invasion without cause. This would be comparable to the impossibility of proving a negative. Number four, initiating a war against Iraq will surely antagonize all neighboring Arab and Muslim nations as well as the Russians, the Chinese and the European Union, if not the whole world.”