“Voting for the war in Iraq was a sin against God. I approved of the killing of his children,” Republican North Carolina representative Walter Jones declared in a speech at the eighth annual Students for Liberty Conference. “It distracted us from our main goal, which was to catch Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind 9/11.”.
Jones did see a justification for the war in Afghanistan. “Every American had been hurt by those terrorist attacks on us. We needed to go after those who had attack us.”
But ever since, the congressman believes the U.S. has been involved in wars it can’t afford. “When Bill Clinton left office in 2000, the debt was at $5.6 trillion. It’s now over $18 trillion! Why are we still trying to be the world’s policeman when we can’t even pay our own policemen?”
Taking up that role is both hurting our image and the countries we “help”. “Saddam was tyrannical and I hated him,” confesses Jones. “However he created stability in Iraq. But now that’s he’s out, the country is in chaos, the same as Libya since Qaddafi was ousted.”
Jones also believes that ISIS is barbaric and must be defeated. “But countries in the Middle East like Jordan and Syria are the ones who must defeat ISIS,” he said. “Then we can go and support them. We can’t take the initiative.”
If the U.S. is to go to war, Jones insists that the act must respect the Constitution. “James Madison said it clearly: the power to declare war rests within the Legislature. If we are to go to war, this is the way we must do it. We can’t give the president a blank check like we did in 2003 with the Authorization for Use of Military Force.”
Otherwise, the representative declares the government will keep drifting away from the people. “Both the Democrats and the Republicans are houses of prostitution that only cater to special interests. We, the people, need to take Congress back. We need to have our voices heard so government can be good again.
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