You're right. Paul knows better. He knew back in 2002 that starry-eyed predictions that Iraqis would embrace liberty and democracy, that the war "would pay for itself" via Iraqi oil, that the other dominoes would soon fall for liberty, etc. were nonsense. He knew that this would be a ntion-building, Wilsonian quagmire, long before others did.
I did two tours in Iraq, and I have no problem with Paul. He is a consistent isolationist, which is a traditional conservative position.