The Price of Delaying the Inevitable
by Rep. Ron Paul
Good intentions frequently lead to unintended bad consequences. Tough choices, doing what is right, often leads to unanticipated good results.
The growing demand by the American people for us to leave Iraq prompts the nay-sayers to predict disaster in the Middle East if we do. Of course, these merchants of fear are the same ones who predicted that invading and occupying Iraq would be a slam dunk operation; that we would be welcomed as liberators, and oil revenues would pay for the operation with minimal loss of American lives.
All of this hyperbole came while ignoring the precise warnings by our intelligence community of the great difficulties that would lie ahead. The chaos that this preemptive, undeclared war has created in Iraq has allowed al-Qaeda to establish a foothold in Iraq and the strategic interests of Iran to be served.
The unintended consequences have been numerous. A well-intended but flawed policy that ignored credible warnings of how things could go awry has produced conditions that have led to a war dominated by procrastination, without victory or resolution in sight.
Those who want a total military victory, which no one has yet defined, don’t have the troops, the money, the equipment, or the support of a large majority of the American people to do so.
Those in Congress who have heard the cry of the electorate to end the war refuse to do so out of fear the demagogues will challenge their patriotism and support of the troops, so nothing happens except more of the same. The result is continued stalemate with the current policy and the daily sacrifice of American lives. (more…)