H.R.4655 Iraq Liberation Act of 1998 Iraq Liberation Act of 1998 - Declares that it should be the policy of the United States to seek to remove the Saddam Hussein regime from power in Iraq and to replace it with a democratic government. Authorizes the President, after notifying specified congressional committees, to provide to the Iraqi democratic opposition organizations: (1) grant assistance for radio and television broadcasting to Iraq; (2) Department of Defense (DOD) defense articles and services and military education and training (IMET); and (3) humanitarian assistance, with emphasis on addressing the needs of individuals who have fled from areas under the control of the Hussein regime. Prohibits assistance to any group or organization that is engaged in military cooperation with the Hussein regime. Authorizes appropriations. Directs the President to designate: (1) one or more Iraqi democratic opposition organizations that meet specified criteria as eligible to receive assistance under this Act; and (2) additional such organizations which satisfy the President's criteria. Urges the President to call upon the United Nations to establish an international criminal tribunal for the purpose of indicting, prosecuting, and imprisoning Saddam Hussein and other Iraqi officials who are responsible for crimes against humanity, genocide, and other criminal violations of international law. Expresses the sense of the Congress that once the Saddam Hussein regime is removed from power in Iraq, the United States should support Iraq's transition to democracy by providing humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people and democracy transition assistance to Iraqi parties and movements with democratic goals, including convening Iraq's foreign creditors to develop a multilateral response to the foreign debt incurred by the Hussein regime. http://www.ronpaul2008.com/press-releases/267/ron-paul-statement-after-10-years-of-war-with-iraq On the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, Congressman Ron Paul, member of the House Foreign Relations Committee, issued the following statement: After five years of occupation, today is a good time for reflection. The cost to America has been great: 4,000 soldiers are dead, 30,000 have been severely wounded, and over 100,000 have applied for disability. Not a very happy anniversary, is it?
It's been nothing short of an absolute disaster. Apart from the wasteful loss of life is that hardly any of the mainstream media concentrate on all the badly injured troops coming back, as if ignoring them means they don't exist. What is even more worrying is that nobody seems to care about this at the highest level, it's a fake war based on lies but nobody is doing anything about bringing them back, and lunatics like Juan McPain are actually advocating spending another 100 years in this disaster area clinging onto some form of "victory" even though that is clearly never going to happen. When are these idiots going to wake up???
Wow, I didn't even know that existed. That is just crazy. I agree, the way I see it this is just the Vietnam of this decade.
Are we just going to pretend that no Iraqis were killed? I'm not saying Ron Paul or you are avoiding it, its just that people tend to quantify the American cost, not the human cost. For whatever reason and I imagine they are many and varied... (just teasing - couldn't resist) Thanks for posting this. I did not have a recollection of this from 10 years ago, it is always good to be reminded of these things.
A lotta people don't know or remember most of the legislation that gets signed into law. The Reich Wing likes to complain about liberals, but Clinton was just as big of a war criminal as any other world leader.
Just like Vietnam sucked in China, Cambodia and Soviet Union, this region of Iraq also has a possibility of sucking in the entire region in an unending war...
No problem. I'm not Ron Paul and he is not me. We don't think the same thing, at the same time, particularly when it comes to war.
I'm just watching a docu on CNN about the Iraq "war" and the lies from people like Bush, Rumsfeld and Powell are quite astonishing. Surely the sheeple can put one and one together and get two.
The difference between Vietnam and Iraq might be OIL . .... Price of which are touching all time high of $111 around this time and may climb higher. Politicians all around the world seems to be same ... LIAR. and they have never ever cared for their people or world. Does not have too much of knowledge of this politics though.
100 000 applied for disabilities? That is a huge social cost! I think Ron Paul can prepare his speech for the 15th year anniversary judging from the comments of Bush.
The surge has gotta work... Just wait a few more decades, and you'll get the results you wanna see...
After the surge, even Bush has to admit that it will take another 5 years before they can leave Iraq.
The surge was originally a short work plan to get fast results, which would result in a drawdown. Now the surge is turning into an ongoing strategy. Stop Loss is a form of draft (involuntary service), and it is causing morale problems. Forget the moral arguments, forget the legal arguments, it is not realistic to expect soldiers to stay at war indefinitely. As far as oil, it's just hit it's NOMINAL high. Adjusted for inflation, it's not actually 3 times higher than it's pre-9/11 average. It's an example of how far the dollar has been debased.
Except the reason South Vietnam wasn't able to defend its self is because funding for the government was cut, while Russia and China sent arms and money into North Vietnam, had congress not cut funding the outcome would of been different.
From what I know South Vietnam was totally corrupted as a regime. US did not send funding but send half a million troops to defend it with a casulties of about 50 000.
Vietnam was the unfortunate proxy. 1.5 million Vietnamese died in a proxy war between the US and Communist China/Russia. They were born in the wrong country, at the wrong time. The sad thing is, America allied with the Saddam Hussein of Vietnam, Diem. The people wanted a new kind of government, and communism promised land reform, and the opportunity for the Vietnamese people to get out from under French and American imperial presence. That whole war is a very sad time in history. The North Vietnamese posed no threat to the west, nor did they wish to engage the west. They merely wanted to unite their country again, and get the foreigners out. They may have chosen the wrong system of government, but they were not guilty of evil against the people who killed or enslaved them.