Senator Rand Paul talks about his top priorities for U.S. foreign policy, Scott McConnell reports at The American Conservative.
I think the top priority for the country, constitutionally, historically and appropriately, is defense of the country. That’s what we’re supposed to do in Washington. That being said Reagan’s motto was Peace Through Strength it wasn’t War Though Strength. There are some in our party who mistake war for defense. If you don’t believe in eternal and perpetual war doesn’t mean you are not for a strong national defense. This is an important distinction. There are some in our party who wanted to give arms to Gadaffi and then a year later wanted to give money to rebels to overturn Gadaffi. There’s a certain inconsistency there. I’m very worried about getting involved in a new war in Syria. People say Assad is such a bad guy. He is. But on the other side we have Al Qaeda and Al Nusra. They say there are some pro-Western people and they say we’re going to vet them. Apparently we got a senator over there who got his picture taken with some kidnappers so I don’t know how good a job we’re going to do vetting those who are going get the arms.
There are two ironies you have to overcome, if you want to get involved in the war in Syria. The first irony is you will be allied with Al Qaeda. The second irony is that most of the Christians are on the other side. So you may be arming Islamic rebels who may well be killing Christians. Does that make Assad a good person? No, I don’t think there are any good people in this war. There are some tragically innocent people who are caught in the middle. But but I just don’t know that arming one side is going to make the tragedy any less.
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