National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012

Floor Speech

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AMENDMENT NO. 1064

Mr. PAUL. Mr. President, I rise in support of bringing the Iraq war to a formal end. President Obama has ordered troops home by January 1. We should rejoice at the conclusion of the war. No matter whether one favored the Iraq war or not, there is a glimmer of hope for democracy to now exist in the Middle East in Iraq.

War is a hellish business and never to be desired. As the famous POW and war hero John McCain once said: ``War is wretched beyond description, and only a fool or a fraud could sentimentalize its cruel reality.''

This vote is more than symbolism. This vote is about the separation of powers. It is about whether Congress should have the power to declare war. The Constitution vested that power in Congress, and it was very important. Our Founding Fathers did not want all the power to gravitate to the Executive. They feared very much a King, and so they limited the power of the Executive.

When Franklin walked out of the Constitutional Convention, a woman asked him: What have you brought us? Was it going to be a republic, a democracy, a monarchy?

He said: A republic, if you can keep it.

In order to keep a republic, we have to have checks and balances. But we have to obey the rule of law.

Madison wrote:

The Constitution supposes, what the History of all Governments demonstrates, that the Executive is the branch of power most interested in war, and most prone to it. The Constitution has, therefore, with studied care, vested the [power] to declare war in [Congress].

When we authorize the war in Iraq, we give the President the power to go to war, and the Constitution gives the power to the President to execute the war. All the infinite decisions that are made in war--most of them are made by the executive branch. But the power to declare war is Congress's. This division was given to make there be a division of powers, a separation of powers, to allow there to be a reluctance to go to war.

We have this vote now to try to reclaim the authority.

If we do not reclaim the authority to declare war or to authorize war, it will mean our kids or our grandkids or our great-grandkids could be sent to a war in Iraq with no debate, with no vote of Congress. We have been at war for nearly 10 years in Iraq. We are coming home. And we should rejoice at the war's end. But we need to reclaim that authority. If we leave an open-ended authority out there that says to the President--or any President; not this particular President, it could be any President--if we leave that authority out there, we basically abdicate our duty, we abdicate the role of Congress. There are supposed to be checks and balances between Congress and the President.

So what I am asking is that Congress today reclaim the authority to declare war and at the same time we celebrate that this is an end to something that no one should desire.

As Senator McCain has pointed out, as many have pointed out, Dwight Eisenhower pointed out the same thing: If you want to know the hellish of war, talk to someone who has been to war.

But that is why this power is too important to be given to one person and to be left in the hands of one person--a President of either party.

So the vote today will be about reclaiming that authority, reclaiming the authority of Congress to declare war. I would recommend that we have a vote and that the vote today be in favor of deauthorizing the war in Iraq.

It is not just I who have pointed this out. The first President of the United States wrote:

The Constitution vests the power of declaring war in Congress; therefore, no offensive expedition of importance can be undertaken until after they shall have deliberated upon the subject and authorized such a measure.

This has been recognized by Presidents from the beginning of the history
of our country. The problem is that if we do not give it up, that power is left out there, and it is a power lost to Congress.
Frank Chodorov wrote:

All wars come to an end, at least temporarily. But the authority acquired by the states hangs on; political power never abdicates.

This is a time to reclaim that power. It is an important constitutional question. I hope those Senators will consider this seriously and consider a vote to reclaim the authority to declare war.

I reserve the reminder of my time and temporarily yield the floor.

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Mr. PAUL. It disappoints me that President Obama opposes a formal end to the Iraq war, but it doesn't surprise me. As a candidate, he was outspoken against the war and for ending the war: He will be bringing the troops home. But this vote in this debate is not necessarily just about bringing the troops home. This is a debate over power. The executive branch wants to keep the unlimited power to commit troops to war. This is about who holds the power.

The Founding Fathers intended that Congress should hold the power. This vote is about whether we will continue to abdicate that power and give up that power to the Executive. That allows for no checks and balances. We need to have checks and balances. It is what our Founding Fathers intended.

With regard to defending ourselves, there is authorization for the President to always defend the Nation using force. There is authorization for every embassy around the world to defend the embassy. That is why we have soldiers there. We have agreements with the host country that the host military is supposed to support the embassy. If that fails, we have our own soldiers. We have these agreements around the world. There is nothing that says we cannot use force. This says we are reclaiming the power to declare war, and we will not have another war with hundreds of thousands of troops without a debate. Should not the public and Congress debate it before we commit troops to war?

This war is coming to a close. I suggest that we should be proud of it. I hope people will support this amendment.

I yield to the Senator from Oregon.

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