Before anyone beats on me for being just another anti-American, I should point out that I was born in the USA and lived there for most of my childhood. I still have loyalty to the good ole US of A. But this doesn't prevent me from thinking that US foreign policy seems designed to provoke just about anybody else into fits. The US, as a corporate body, acts as though none of the 10 commandments applies to it or how it deals with its neighbors. Here are some thought-provoking questions:

Questions That Won't Be Asked About Iraq
by Rep. Ron Paul, MD
http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul52.html

In the House of Representatives, September 10, 2002

Soon we hope to have hearings on the pending war with Iraq. I am
concerned there are some questions that won't be asked - and maybe
will not even be allowed to be asked. Here are some questions I
would like answered by those who are urging us to start this war.

1. Is it not true that the reason we did not bomb the Soviet Union at
the height of the Cold War was because we knew they could retaliate?

2. Is it not also true that we are willing to bomb Iraq now because
we know it cannot retaliate - which just confirms that there is no
real threat?

3. Is it not true that those who argue that even with inspections we
cannot be sure that Hussein might be hiding weapons, at the same time
imply that we can be more sure that weapons exist in the absence of
inspections?

4. Is it not true that the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency
was able to complete its yearly verification mission to Iraq just
this year with Iraqi cooperation?

5. Is it not true that the intelligence community has been unable to
develop a case tying Iraq to global terrorism at all, much less the
attacks on the United States last year? Does anyone remember that 15
of the 19 hijackers came from Saudi Arabia and that none came from
Iraq?

6. Was former CIA counter-terrorism chief Vincent Cannistraro wrong
when he recently said there is no confirmed evidence of Iraq's links
to terrorism?

7. Is it not true that the CIA has concluded there is no evidence
that a Prague meeting between 9/11 hijacker Atta and Iraqi
intelligence took place?

8. Is it not true that northern Iraq, where the administration
claimed al-Qaeda were hiding out, is in the control of our "allies,"
the Kurds?

9. Is it not true that the vast majority of al-Qaeda leaders who
escaped appear to have safely made their way to Pakistan, another of
our so-called allies?

10. Has anyone noticed that Afghanistan is rapidly sinking into total
chaos, with bombings and assassinations becoming daily occurrences;
and that according to a recent UN report the al-Qaeda "is, by all
accounts, alive and well and poised to strike again, how, when, and
where it chooses"?

11. Why are we taking precious military and intelligence resources
away from tracking down those who did attack the United States - and
who may again attack the United States - and using them to invade
countries that have not attacked the United States?

12. Would an attack on Iraq not just confirm the Arab world's worst
suspicions about the US - and isn't this what bin Laden wanted?

13. How can Hussein be compared to Hitler when he has no navy or air
force, and now has an army 1/5 the size of twelve years ago, which
even then proved totally inept at defending the country?

14. Is it not true that the constitutional power to declare war is
exclusively that of the Congress? Should presidents, contrary to the
Constitution, allow Congress to concur only when pressured by public
opinion? Are presidents permitted to rely on the UN for permission to
go to war?

15. Are you aware of a Pentagon report studying charges that
thousands of Kurds in one village were gassed by the Iraqis, which
found no conclusive evidence that Iraq was responsible, that Iran
occupied the very city involved, and that evidence indicated the type
of gas used was more likely controlled by Iran not Iraq?

16. Is it not true that anywhere between 100,000 and 300,000 US
soldiers have suffered from Persian Gulf War syndrome from the first
Gulf War, and that thousands may have died?

17. Are we prepared for possibly thousands of American casualties in
a war against a country that does not have the capacity to attack the
United States?

18. Are we willing to bear the economic burden of a $100 billion war
against Iraq, with oil prices expected to skyrocket and further
rattle an already shaky American economy? How about an estimated 30
years occupation of Iraq that some have deemed necessary to "build
democracy" there?

19. Iraq's alleged violations of UN resolutions are given as reason
to initiate an attack, yet is it not true that hundreds of UN
Resolutions have been ignored by various countries without penalty?

20. Did former President Bush not cite the UN Resolution of 1990 as
the reason he could not march into Baghdad, while supporters of a new
attack assert that it is the very reason we can march into Baghdad?

21. Is it not true that, contrary to current claims, the no-fly zones
were set up by Britain and the United States without specific
approval from the United Nations?

22. If we claim membership in the international community and conform
to its rules only when it pleases us, does this not serve to
undermine our position, directing animosity toward us by both friend
and foe?

23. How can our declared goal of bringing democracy to Iraq be
believable when we prop up dictators throughout the Middle East and
support military tyrants like Musharraf in Pakistan, who overthrew a
democratically-elected president?

24. Are you familiar with the 1994 Senate Hearings that revealed the
U.S. knowingly supplied chemical and biological materials to Iraq
during the Iran-Iraq war and as late as 1992 - including after the
alleged Iraqi gas attack on a Kurdish village?

25. Did we not assist Saddam Hussein's rise to power by supporting
and encouraging his invasion of Iran? Is it honest to criticize
Saddam now for his invasion of Iran, which at the time we actively
supported?

26. Is it not true that preventive war is synonymous with an act of
aggression, and has never been considered a moral or legitimate US
policy?

27. Why do the oil company executives strongly support this war if
oil is not the real reason we plan to take over Iraq?

28. Why is it that those who never wore a uniform and are confident
that they won't have to personally fight this war are more anxious
for this war than our generals?

29. What is the moral argument for attacking a nation that has not
initiated aggression against us, and could not if it wanted?

30. Where does the Constitution grant us permission to wage war for
any reason other than self-defense?

31. Is it not true that a war against Iraq rejects the sentiments of
the time-honored Treaty of Westphalia, nearly 400 years ago, that
countries should never go into another for the purpose of regime
change?

32. Is it not true that the more civilized a society is, the less
likely disagreements will be settled by war?

33. Is it not true that since World War II Congress has not declared
war and - not coincidentally - we have not since then had a clear-cut
victory?

34. Is it not true that Pakistan, especially through its intelligence
services, was an active supporter and key organizer of the Taliban?

35. Why don't those who want war bring a formal declaration of war
resolution to the floor of Congress?