Rand Paul Condemns NATO Vote: They Want To Send Your Kids To War

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Senator Rand Paul condemned adding the Balkan nation Montenegro to NATO in an epic speech on the House floor earlier this week. Paul introduced an Amendment 199 and proclaimed, “they want to rubber stamp, they want no debates, and they want to send your kids to war with no debate,” speaking about his fellow constituents.

Two weeks ago in the Senate, John McCain accused Paul of working for Russian President Vladimir Putin when the Kentucky Senator objected to adding Montenegro to the NATO alliance.

“Nobody wanted to have this debate,” Paul said.

Paul and Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) were the only two Senators who voted against the motion in a 97-2 vote which Paul warned may be a big mistake.

If Montenegro were attacked, any NATO member would then have the ability to invoke Article 5. An attack on one state is an attack on all NATO countries. This could potentially prompt escalated military intervention, such as when the article was invoked after the September 11th terrorist attacks.

The Kentucky senator then expressed his support for President Trump wanting to put, “America first.”

“President Trump said in his inaugural address that we defend other nations’ borders while refusing to defend our own,” Paul stated. “I think he was right.”

The senator continued: “Today the question is will we add another commitment to defend yet another foreign country? For decades NATO has been an organization where the U.S. disproportionately spends our blood and our treasure. The other NATO countries have largely hitched a ride on a U.S. train that subsidizes their defenses and allows them to direct their revenues to their own domestic concerns.”

“The other NATO countries have largely hitched a ride on a U.S. train that subsidizes their defenses and allows them to direct their revenues to their own domestic concerns.”

Paul then lambasted Congress for failing to question the current U.S. involvement in wars in the middle east which he called “illegal and unconstitutional.”

“For 16 years we have been at war in the middle east our justified response if I had been here I would have voted for the people who attacked us on 911 our justified response though has drug on and on.” There are people fighting in the war who were not born on 911. The congress voted after 911 to go to war they voted to go after the people who planned and plotted the attacks on the trade center. That vote from 15 years ago is used to justify all war everywhere on the planet there has been no meaningful debate about the wars we are currently involved in, in the middle east. We currently fight illegally and unconstitutionally in the middle east because your representatives are afraid to have a public debate,” Senator Rand Paul said.

Paul offered his amendment 199 as a solution stating that, “if Montenegro were added to NATO and attacked, Congress would have to debate and vote on a formal declaration of war rather than allowing NATO to control the destiny of American civilians sent to die in a foreign land.” Paul further noted that his amendment would be ridiculed and denied, but still urged his fellow Senators to allow his bill and form an open debate on the topic of foreign wars.

“We could have one 15 minute vote on an amendment,” Paul proposed. “But they don’t want to debate it because they’re embarrassed that they’re sending your sons and daughters to war without ever debating or voting on it.”

Senator Paul then took to Twitter to put out the most important pieces of his speech tweeting, “For decades NATO has been an organization where the U.S. disproportionately spends our blood and our treasure,” adding “Nobody wanted to have this debate. They want to rubber stamp. They want no debates and they want to send your kids to war.”

For decades nato has been an organization where the U.S. Disproportionately spends our blood and our treasure. pic.twitter.com/mB8Nsl2zcx

— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 27, 2017

Nobody wanted to have this debate. They want to rubber stamp. They want no debates and they want to send your kids to war pic.twitter.com/BcBc8AcftP

— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 27, 2017

Watch Sen. Paul’s full speech below:

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