Declaration of War: Why did Ron Paul vote for the Afghan war?

[Prez4TheNet]

I always get stumped on this one when it is brought up.

Was it for political convenience/cover? There was no debate about the scope and victory, there was no formal declaration in Congress. Why did Ron Paul vote to authorize it?

[Prez4TheNet]

so we can fight osama bin laden, whatever foreign policy he suggests he knows that we had a chance to capture osama, so he voted to authorize it. and now 6 years later and still no capture we need to pull out, to not cause blowback

Well he shouldn't have voted for it then but should have instead kept on pushing his bill of "Marque & Reprisal"

[trispear]

I think Ron Paul was voting to give George Bush the authority to go after Bin Laden. He said publicly that he was disappointed that it turned into a nation building effort.

I would have to look into this further.

[jblosser]

He has stated he did it because we knew the responsible parties were there and he let himself believe that's what we were going to take care of. He now regrets it. I haven't heard him say it but I suspect this incident was one of the things that made him completely hardline about the need for a Constitutional declaration of war.

[QWE]

He voted to authorize military force to capture Osama bin Laden, the original intent of moving troops into Afghanistan. He said he wouldn't have voted if he had known what the Bush administration was planning on doing there. He doesn't think voting to authorize force against Al Qaeda was wrong, since he treats 9/11 as a criminal act against the US and they were the perpetrators. However, he definitely objects to our continued presence there.

[Bean]

I honestly think he didn't vote to authorize war because the decision to go to war with Afghanistan was such a knee-jerk reaction, regardless on if it was constitutionally right.

And plus, it would have been counterproductive, because after the 9/11 attacks, if it came up to a vote to authorize war in the congress, who WOULDN'T have voted for it?

[TruePatriot44]

There was no declaration of war against Afghanistan. There was legislation for action against Bin Laden and the Taliban.

[derdy]

At least he didn't knee-jerk at the Patriot Act.

[Bean]

At least he didn't knee-jerk at the Patriot Act.

Exactly. He's one of the few who didn't knee jerk at it. But hey, would we expect any less of RP?:D

[MicroBalrog]

I always get stumped on this one when it is brought up.

Was it for political convenience/cover? There was no debate about the scope and victory, there was no formal declaration in Congress. Why did Ron Paul vote to authorize it?

The Afghani government had refused to tunrn over the people who attacked America, and had in fact if not in law sided with them. Sounds like casus belli to me.

[Shellshock1918]

Well he shouldn't have voted for it then but should have instead kept on pushing his bill of "Marque & Reprisal"
We dont need to pull out of Afghanistan, we need to pull troops out of Iraq, rest them then finish of AQ in Afghanistan.