On the Elimination of Osama bin Laden

http://paul.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1860:on-
the-elimination-of-osama-bin-laden&catid=62:texas-straight-talk&Itemid=69

On the Elimination of Osama bin Laden        

Last week marked an important milestone in the war on terrorism for our 
country.  Osama bin Laden applauded the 9/11 attacks.  Such deliberate 
killing of innocent lives deserved retaliation. It is good that bin Laden is 
dead and justice is served.  The way in which he was finally captured and 
killed shows that targeted retribution is far superior to wars of aggression 
and nation-building.  In 2001 I supported giving the president the authority 
to pursue those responsible for the vicious 9/11 attacks.  However, misusing 
that authority to pursue nation-building and remaking the Middle East was 
cynical and dangerous, as the past ten years have proven.

It is tragic that it took ten years, trillions of dollars, tens of thousands 
of American casualties and many thousands of innocent lives to achieve our 
mission of killing one evil person.  A narrow, targeted mission under these 
circumstances was far superior to initiating wars against countries not 
involved in the 9/11 attacks, and that is all we should have done.  This was 
the reason I emphasized at the time the principle of Marque and Reprisal, 
permitted to us by the US Constitution for difficult missions such as we 
faced.  I am convinced that this approach would have achieved our goal much 
sooner and much cheaper.

The elimination of Osama bin Laden should now prompt us to declare victory 
and bring our troops home from Afghanistan and Iraq.  Al Qaeda was never in 
Iraq and we were supposedly in Afghanistan to get Osama bin Laden. With bin 
Laden gone, there is no reason for our presence in the region – unless indeed 
it was all about oil, nation-building, and remaking the Middle East and 
Central Asia.

Hopefully bin Laden does not get the last laugh. He claimed the 9/11 attacks 
were designed to get the US to spread its military dangerously and 
excessively throughout the Middle East, bankrupting us through excessive 
military spending as he did the Soviets, and to cause political dissention 
within the United States.  Some 70 percent of Americans now believe we should 
leave Afghanistan yet both parties seem determined to stay.  The best thing 
we could do right now is prove bin Laden a false prophet by coming home and 
ending this madness on a high note.

Tragically, one result may be the acceptance of torture as a legitimate tool 
for pursuing our foreign policy. A free society, calling itself a republic, 
grounded in the rule of law, should never succumb to such evil.

At the very least we should all be able to agree that foreign aid to Pakistan 
needs to end immediately.  The idea that bin Laden was safely protected for 
ten years in Pakistan, either willfully or through incompetence, should make 
us question the wisdom of robbing American citizens to support any government 
around the world with foreign aid.  All foreign aid and intervention needs to 
end.

Our failed foreign policy is reflected in our bizarre relationship with 
Pakistan. We bomb them with drones, causing hundreds of civilian casualties, 
we give them billions of dollars in foreign aid for the privilege to do so, 
all while they protect America's enemy number one for a decade.

It is time to consider a sensible non-interventionist foreign policy as 
advised by our Founders and authorized by our Constitution. We would all be 
better off for it.

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