Boston Tea Party Speech 12/16/07

Note: If anyone can find a downloadable version of Jim on video please let me know as he'd like a copy of it. Thanks.

Jim Forsythe PhD, Aerospace Engineer and former tanker pilot who flew missions to Bosnia and Kosovo gave this speech at the Boston Tea Party celebration for Ron Paul at Faneuil Hall, Boston today. Long live the "Second American Revolution" of 2008.

Enjoy!

- Jane

"I can’t wear my uniform and make a political speech, so instead I’ll just place my desert boots here to remind us all of our soldiers who have served throughout our history, and are currently serving in the Middle East.

On this historic day, I ask you to imagine that we are the 11,000 soldiers camped out with General George Washington at Valley Forge in the winter of 1777. We come from every state in the Union. We are as young as 12, as old as 60, and come from all walks of life. Look around at your fellow patriots. Pick out four people. By the end of winter, one of them will probably be dead. It might be you. Yet despite your tragic loss this winter, you will be joined by others, and in three long arduous years, you will defeat the British Empire, despite overwhelming odds. You have come here today despite the risk to your life, because you believe that Liberty is a cause worth fighting for. In the words of John Stark, a New Hampshire Patriot, you believe that we should “Live Free or Die, Death is not the worst of evils.”

But all this sacrifice could have been for nothing if the founding fathers had chosen to set up a government as despotic as the one that they rebelled against. This is exactly what happened to the French and the Russians after their revolutions - they traded one tyrant for another. Instead, the founding fathers set up a Constitutional Republic, binding the government in the chains of the Constitution. Our first President, George Washington voluntarily stepped down after two terms, setting up a tradition that lasted until President FDR. We owe an immense debt of gratitude to these men who risked everything and sacrificed so much. We should heed their words and their warnings, and reflect on how our country has lived up to their expectations.

In Common Sense, the document that helped spark the revolution, Thomas Paine wrote:
"Our plan is commerce, and that, well attended to, will secure us the peace and friendship of all Europe,"

In the Declaration of Independence, the founders laid out the train of abuses of the King. Several of the abuses dealt with the overly militaristic mercantilist approach of the British Empire.

“The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

“He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

“He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
“For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
“For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world.”
Several weeks before his farewell address, Washington succinctly stated his noninterventionist policy in a letter to James Monroe: "I have always given it as my decided opinion that no nation had a right to intermeddle in the internal concerns of another; that every one had a right to form and adopt whatever government they liked best to live under themselves."
In his farewell address, he spent a great deal of time on this issue, concluding,
“The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible.”
Thomas Jefferson later stated:
"I have ever deemed it fundamental for the United States never to take active part in the quarrels of Europe. Their political interests are entirely distinct from ours. Their mutual jealousies, their balance of power, their complicated alliances, their forms and principles of government, are all foreign to us. They are nations of eternal war. All their energies are expended in the destruction of the labor, property and lives of their people."And he also said
"Never was so much false arithmetic employed on any subject as that which has been employed to persuade nations that it is in their interests to go to war."

These patriots believed that the proper role of the military was to defend the Union. They were willing to fight and die for Liberty and the Union. But they were not willing to risk the lives of fellow Americans for the sake of increasing American influence overseas. They had seen how the British Mercantilist form of government led to constant war, and instead favored free trade and a non-interventionist foreign policy. They restrained the ability of the government to go to war by vesting the power to declare war in the legislative branch, since as Madison wrote to Jefferson:

”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. It has accordingly with studied care vested the question of war in the Legislature.”

Now, fast forward to 1991. The cold war has ended, and I’m a young Air Force 2nd Lieutenant, driving to Texas on my way to pilot training, and the Gulf war begins. I’m too busy learning how to fly jet aircraft to really examine the cause of the war. Certainly our government knows what it is doing. But something doesn’t seem quite right, since I signed up to defend my country, and I’m not sure exactly how a war in the Middle East is a direct threat to us.

After graduating, and getting assigned to KC-135 refueling aircraft, I receive my first overseas assignment to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, enforcing the no-fly zone over Iraq. We flew sorties daily next to the Iraqi border, refueling fighter aircraft who patrolled the southern no-fly zone. When I came home and told my friends and family about my trip to Saudi, the general reaction was, “Oh, I thought the war was over? Are we still over there?” Yes, we were, and I would go back two more times over the next five years, stopping at one of our bases in England on the way over.

Between trips to Saudi Arabia, I would also go to France and Italy to fly combat support operations to enforce the no-fly zone over Bosnia. And I also got to sit alert, and launch in support of transport operations into Somalia. It was a surreal experience – coming back from one foreign country to spend a few months with my kids before launching for yet another foreign country. I flew with a married couple that had a child. They could never be assigned overseas together, since one of them needed to be with their child, so instead, they alternated overseas assignments, seeing each other for a few weeks before one or the other would go back overseas. We were at a war-time ops tempo despite officially being at war with no-one. I would earn three aerial achievement medals for flying combat support missions, despite the fact that America had not declared war with any country.

But the experience I will always remember is my flight into Dhahran Saudi Arabia, to stay at the Khobar towers. Two weeks later, terrorists would bomb this facility, killing 19 American soldiers. The reason given to us by our intelligence officers was that the Saudi people resented our being there, propping up what they saw as an American puppet government dictatorship. Whether or not this is true, it made me wonder why we were defending a country when the people of that country didn’t want us there. It was a chilling pre-cursor to 9/11, as 15 of 19 of the hijackers were from Saudi Arabia. Even before the Khobar towers bombing, we had been required to change into civilian clothes on the way to and from the airfield, so the threat had been known and anticipated. Yet politicians will say what most who have served in the Middle East know is a lie – that they only attack us because we are free. Although this may be part of it, things are not that simple. And those that deny that occupation is part of the motivation put my fellow solidiers at risk, as the Khobar towers bombing will attest.

Clearly America has not heeded the advice of Paine, Jefferson, Washington, and Madison, men who risked all that they had for our freedom. We have spent over 16 years in an undeclared war with Iraq, spending about one trillion dollars, and thousands of lives. Yes, that’s right – 16 years, ever since 1991. People tend to forget the years between the Gulf Wars, but I don’t, as that’s when I was flying combat support operations. How many more lives will we spend in Iraq? Will my friends currently over there come home alive? How long will we be there?

We’ve spent over fifty years in Korea, having fought an undeclared war. In fact, President Truman didn’t even bother to go to Congress, but instead got his authorization from the United Nations! This was a slap in the face for the brave soldiers who swore to uphold the Constitution, which requires Congress to declare war. This transgression along with the undeclared Vietnam War led to passage of the War Powers Resolution, which actually seems to have made things worse. Clinton sent the military into conflicts dozens of times during his two terms, as I should know. And during Kosovo he bombed Serbia for several months, after the House had voted against authorizing the Air War. Did you know we are currently fighting in Columbia, South America? We have over 700 bases in over 130 countries, with over ¼ of a million military members stationed overseas (prior to Iraq).

As Dr Paul said in Iowa “Our Founding Fathers would be ashamed of us”.

Madison’s warnings are completely prophetic:

"Of all the enemies of true liberty, war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few.”

We are told over and over again to “support the troops”, suggesting that if we question going to war we have somehow disrespected the troops. Well, I am a troop. And so are the other soldiers who have donated more to Ron Paul’s campaign than to any other candidate. We signed up willing to sacrifice our lives to maintain liberty, just as those soldiers at Valley Forge did to gain our liberty. The best support people can give to the troops is to make sure that our politicians obey the rule of law in declaring war. This will ensure that we go to war carefully, and for the proper reasons, with well defined objectives.

We are told over and over again, that if you don’t support this foreign policy, you are weak on defense. But how does stationing ¼ of a million troops overseas while our borders are open provide a strong defense? How does stationing troops in two Middle Eastern countries provide a strong defense when it is well documented that occupation helps recruit terrorist and drive suicide terrorism, as I experienced in the bombing of the Khobar towers. Al Qaeda is reported to be stronger than ever. How does delegating the pursuit of terrorists to foreign governments like Pakistan, while attacking a country that had not attacked us provide a strong defense.

For a strong defense, what we need is to protect our borders, not attempt to remake borders overseas. We need to pursue a non-interventionist foreign policy, with free trade and travel to engender the good will of the world. And when we are attacked we need to go after those that have attacked us, and only those that attacked us. What we need, is Ron Paul. In his ten terms he has consistently fought to protect our borders. He has consistently advocated a non-interventionist foreign policy and free trade. And he advocated directly targeting the terrorists, by voting to pursue them in Afghanistan. He also sponsored a bill to target the terrorist directly through constitutional means, but was ignored.

It has become abundantly clear to me that the revolution sparked by the Boston Tea Party was gradually abandoned over the last two centuries. Our non-interventionist foreign policy was abandoned by Wilson, who said we should “make the world safe for democracy,” leading to WW1. But the withering torch of freedom has once again been re-ignited. The revolution began at Lexington and Concord 10 miles west of this cradle of liberty. And the beginning of the second American Revolution will also take place in Concord. But it will be Concord, New Hampshire, headquarters of the New Hampshire Ron Paul for President Campaign. Join Operation Live Free or Die and come help us succeed in New Hampshire.

Do you want to return to the non-interventionist foreign policy our founders envisioned? Who’s foreign policy do you want - that of Washington, or of Wilson? In honor of the first Boston Tea Party, I would like to throw our current interventionist policy away, symbolized by these dessert boots. And, in return, I would like to take something back as well. I want our troops home from all across the world, to do what they signed up to do – defend our country, and the Constitution of the United States."

CNN coverage: http://www.youtube.com/wa...