Constitutional Responses to Terrorism[Ron Paul]

House.gov ^ | 20 Jan 2008 | Ron Paul

[Niteranger68]

My legislation entitled The Marque and Reprisal Act of 2007 (HR 3216) makes the surgical strike option available to the President in our mission to capture Bin Laden. Our military has been pursuing him without result for far too long now, and it is high time ALL constitutional tools were utilized in the hunt for this dangerous madman.

Sounds like a DNC talking point.

[ontap]

This is BS to cover his a$$ for the stupid answer he gave in that debate. We know what he really thinks and that is it was our fault they hit us.

[Def Conservative]

What a load of crap

[LifeOrGoods?]

Ron Paul wants to wait for the terrorists to build up and come over here first. Insane is he!

[wideawake]

My legislation entitled The Marque and Reprisal Act of 2007 (HR 3216) makes the surgical strike option available to the President in our mission to capture Bin Laden.

Letters of marque and reprisal have not carried legal force for 150 years.

They have no relevance, and have nothing to do with any "surgical strike" capability as far as the President is concerned.

The two phenomena are completely unrelated.

And the President has already put in place measures that are vastly superior to letters of marque and reprisal, even if letters of marque and reprisal were still valid.

[pfony1]

Aye...

But “The Farce” is strong within him...

[MrB]

Some day it will have to happen, but no one has the guts to do it today.

DECLARE WAR ON ISLAM.

They’ve already declared war on us, since their inception.

You have three choices, as far as they are concerned:
Conversion, Subjugation (Dhimmitude), DIE.

Time to take the threat seriously.

[ElectricStrawberry]

Great, Ron.....how many countries are we going to invade to find one man in a Constitutional “Reprisal”?

What mercenaries shall we grant a Letter of Marquis in order to carry out these multiple invasions?

[flintsilver7]

Seeing as Ron Paul doesn’t seem to know it’s later than 1780, I’m not surprised he would suggest this.

[PubliusMM]

Hear! Hear!

[wideawake]

Putting aside, of course, the fact that letters of marque and reprisal, if they still were valid, would not be useful on dry land but only on the sea.

How long is Afghanistan's coastline? Waziristan's?

[veracious]

Sorry to ask, but have you read the US Constitution? Whether I think Ron Paul is sane or not isn't the point of this posting. The Constitution has a solution for Bin Laden and many other ailments, which all political parties and apparently many here don't get. I guarantee that if we unleashed the Articles of Marque upon the problem, the contracted agents would get him or anyone else it short order.

Instead we resort to trillions of dollars of _borrowed_ money to wage conventional warfare against asymetrical leadship structures. This hasn't gotten him.

Perhaps being a Republican or Democrat isn't as important as being a Constitutional American. As for me and my household, we defend the US Constitution aginast all enemies, foreign and domestic. Hence this post...

[wideawake]

I guarantee that if we unleashed the Articles of Marque upon the problem, the contracted agents would get him or anyone else it short order.

This statement demonstrates that you do not know what letters of marque and reprisal were (the operative word being "were" since they can no longer exist).

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

I guess RP knows just where these guys are!
I believe that if we knew where they were, there’d be a Special Op set in motion to kill them on the QT.

[mnehring]

There are several flaws in what Paul is saying. First, Letters of Marque existed as a matter of international law when the Constitution was written. It was effectively outlawed by the mid-1850s. The US did not sign the Declaration of Paris of 1856 which outlawed Letters of Marque but it did invoke the Declaration during both the American Civil War and the Spanish American War.

Bottom line, Letters of Marque work only if all parties agree to them. Without such agreement, privateering is simply called piracy. No one has recognized Letters of Marque in one hundred and fifty years.

Second, Paul opposes putting the military or national guard on the border as he claims it is outside their Constitutional role (and voted against using them on the border at least five times, several times after 9/11.) It is easy for him to say that now because it is popular, but he can’t run from his record on this.

[veracious]

Please advise me on what possible legal structure has destroyed something so clearly stated in the US Constitution. Are you aware that it is actually the _supreme_ law of the land and that much of the real _problem_ with US is those citizens who think we live in a democracy where the government can do _whatever_ it wants, as long as >50% of the people or representatives want it.

This is exactly why we're in so much trouble.

Long live the Constitutional Republic, in spite of those who know not what it is...

[mnehring]

Sorry to ask, but have you read the US Constitution?

Yes, but sometimes I wonder if Paul has considering he ignores subsection 10 of Article 8 which does allow for military action or any other action without the need for a declaration of war in subsection 11 that he often cites.

[coalman]

RP has some good points and is right about a few things,but what would really help him,,,not being freakin nuts! His ideas seem good for a few things but not for the USA in todays world.

[Nephi]

In a baffling move President Bush struck a deal with Saudi King Abdullah in 2005 to allow 21,000 more Saudi young men into the US on student Visas.

If only George W. Nixon were as determined to win the war on terror as Americans who support the war are.