Rand Paul has decided to run as a democrat:
Well, okay, our headline goes too far. But the claim is about as plausible as Rand Paul’s outburst that Republican internationalists like Lindsey Graham and John McCain are responsible for the rise of the Islamic State.
“ISIS exists and grew stronger because of the hawks in our party who gave arms indiscriminately, and most of those arms were snatched up by ISIS,” the GOP presidential candidate said Wednesday on “Morning Joe” on MSNBC. “These hawks also wanted to bomb Assad, which would have made ISIS’s job even easier. They’ve created these people.”
Citing Iraq, Syria and Libya, Mr. Paul added that “everything that they’ve talked about in foreign policy, they’ve been wrong about for 20 years, and yet they have somehow the gall to keep saying and pointing fingers otherwise.”
Speaking of gall, and a word of political advice, an aide might want to remind Senator Paul which party’s nomination he is seeking. Republicans who begin their campaigns assailing other Republicans rarely succeed—especially when the accusation is culpability for a would-be caliphate that uses executions, slavery, extortion, rape and general terror to enforce oppression in the Middle East and North Africa, and whose ideology inspires jihadists world-wide.
More to the point, even President Obama now largely refrains from blaming George W. Bush for all the world’s ills, albeit with an exception here and there for old time’s sake. Maybe even he recognizes that the statute of limitations has expired for Republicans who haven’t run the executive branch for seven years and have had no perceptible influence on Administration policy.
I agree with Paul on a lot of issues because of his Libertarian bent, but campaigning from the left on matters of national security is a sure fire way NOT to get the Republican nomination. However, in the recently declassified document obtained by Judicial Watch, the DoD in paragraph 7.B. clearly states the war in Syria turned into a proxy war and put the West (i.e. the U.S.) on the same side of the fight as AQ. In the beginning, before a power vacuum was allowed to develop amongst the Syrian rebels thanks to a lack of leadership and a plan, arming the opposition may have worked, but arming the rebels when we did amounted to arming ISIS and AQ.
As has been demonstrated on Word’s other threads, ISIS wasn’t a name until this administration allowed them to morph into what they’ve become. See paragraph 5.D. for the assessment of AQ’s status in Iraq. When you summarize the time line it’s quite clear how ISIS morphed. 2009-2010 AQ in regression. 2011/2012 on, expanding with the warning in 2012 that ISI, through its union with other groups, could declare an Islamic state, which of course has happened. Notice the date of the document, 5 August 2012. ISIS or ISIL is not mentioned anywhere in the document. Also note that in paragraph 8.D.1. both Mosul’s and Ramadi’s significance were pointed out and both were clearly identified as targets. DoD also in that paragraph warned of grave consequences to Iraq.
Paul needs to save his criticism for Obama and company.
http://www.judicialwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Pg.-291-Pgs.-287-293-JW-v-DOD-and-State-14-812-DOD-Release-2015-04-10-final-version11.pdf
I find it ironic that Obama is willing to arm Muslims who will cut and run, abandoning all those American weapons and ammo behind.
At the same time he is VERY reluctant to arm the Kurds who have already shown a willingness to fight to the death, even their women!
As for Rand Paul, I agree with PJMedia’s Editor-in-Chief Roger L. Simon.
Thank you, Roger, for not fully retiring when you intended to.