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Rand Paul: Let’s face it, it was a mistake to topple Saddam Hussein
Hotair ^ | 04/27/2015 | AllahPundit

Posted on 04/27/2015 7:35:18 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

Edited on 04/27/2015 10:05:42 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]

Interesting, not because it’s a surprise that Ron Paul’s son feels this way — remember this? — but because this is a subject that every Republican in the field, Rand included, would probably prefer to avoid during the primaries.

Or am I wrong about that? Could this be a smart play for Paul, especially given how it’ll make Jeb Bush squirm?


(Excerpt) Read more at hotair.com ...


TOPICS: Egypt; Foreign Affairs; Government; Israel; News/Current Events; Russia; Syria; US: Kentucky; US: Texas; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: 2016election; egypt; election2016; gaza; hamas; iran; iraq; israel; jordan; kentucky; kurdistan; lebanon; paultardnoisemachine; randpaul; randpaulnoisemachine; randpaultruthfile; randsconcerntrolls; ronpaul; ronpaultruthfile; rop; russia; saddamhussein; saudiarabia; shiites; sinai; syria; tedcruz; texas; turkey; waronterror
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To: Star Traveler

Yes, KY GOP strikes out twice with Rand and Mitch, and they never seriously compete for governor.


41 posted on 04/27/2015 7:57:31 PM PDT by Theodore R. (Liberals keep winning; so the American people must now be all-liberal all the time.)
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To: ansel12

“Vietnam” means a long drawn-out military venture that ends with no good result because of a lack of commitment.


42 posted on 04/27/2015 7:58:30 PM PDT by Theodore R. (Liberals keep winning; so the American people must now be all-liberal all the time.)
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To: Alberta's Child

Well, there was a time when everyone in FR supported Bush, and thought he was fighting for our country. There was even a time, during his first term in office, when he was thought to be conservative.

It did make a kind of sense to take on Iraq first before tackling the Saudis. Secure the oil first. But, as you say, that was evidently never Bush’s real intention.

I was also hoping that if we conquered Arabia, we could split the country in two: One country with the oil, the other with the Holy Cities. Leaving one of the richest countries in the world also basically in charge of Islam is not healthy for the rest of us.

But Bush proved to be a disappointment, as you say.


43 posted on 04/27/2015 7:58:40 PM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: laplata

Re-litigating the Iraq war is for obsessives who want to claim some sort of retroactive Pyrrhic academic “I told you so” victory. This is 2016 not 2003.


44 posted on 04/27/2015 7:59:03 PM PDT by AHerald ("Do not fear, only believe." - Mark 5:36)
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To: Cicero
If the U.S. had any interest in toppling the Saudis, the easiest way to do it would have been to simply let Saddam Hussein overrun the country.

That was never going to happen because this country never had a problem with radical Islam in the Middle East ... as long as those radical Muslims were investing heavily in U.S. political leaders.

45 posted on 04/27/2015 8:02:14 PM PDT by Alberta's Child ("It doesn't work for me. I gotta have more cowbell!")
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

“Dear George Bush, Saddam was our biggest enemy in the world, and you toppled him. In his place, you set up a Shiite government. It was made up of people we’d been hosting, as exiles, when Saddam was in power. So Iraq became our closest ally.

“Thank you George Bush!

Sincerely,
Iran”


46 posted on 04/27/2015 8:02:49 PM PDT by WilliamIII
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To: AHerald

Paul is right on this.


47 posted on 04/27/2015 8:02:58 PM PDT by laplata ( Liberals/Progressives have diseased minds.)
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To: AHerald

True.


48 posted on 04/27/2015 8:03:30 PM PDT by laplata ( Liberals/Progressives have diseased minds.)
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To: dp0622

I agree with that...the surge indicated the administration eventually did as well. Had enough troops gone in to begin with to be able to hold territory once it was taken from the terrorists rather than “moving on” and then allowing the terrorists to come back and retake prior territory when they were being repelled elsewhere, things would have stabilized years before and many of the problems in the aftermath would have never occurred.

That said, Rand Paul is blaming decisions made by Obama on Bush that have caused some of the problems he highlights that a Bush administration would have never made...certainly would have never allowed ISIS to march as long as it did entrenching in one city after another to where it is now a much more difficult task to remove them - should have been stopped in their tracks when they first started their march into Iraq.


49 posted on 04/27/2015 8:04:31 PM PDT by Republican Wildcat
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To: ansel12

So you’re glad we sent troops to fight Ebola?


50 posted on 04/27/2015 8:04:33 PM PDT by WilliamIII
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To: A Navy Vet
"I’m worried [Iran] is twice as strong as it was before the Iraq War."

It's even worse than that. If you were to go back to 2003 and conjure up a course of action in the Middle East that would have laid the foundation for Iranian supremacy in the region, you couldn't come up with a more effective strategy to accomplish this than what the U.S. actually did over there.

51 posted on 04/27/2015 8:04:38 PM PDT by Alberta's Child ("It doesn't work for me. I gotta have more cowbell!")
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To: laplata
He is correct.

Yes, we should have irradiated Baghdad, the Tollibon, and the Soddies.

52 posted on 04/27/2015 8:04:44 PM PDT by ROCKLOBSTER (Celebrate "Republicans Freed the Slaves Month")
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To: Theodore R.

No, it means a long and massively bloody war in Vietnam, not a war of about 4500 dead in the Middle East.

Under Reagan, we were losing almost 5,000 men in 2 years, in peacetime.


53 posted on 04/27/2015 8:04:51 PM PDT by ansel12 (LEGAL immigrants, 30 million 1980-2012, continues to remake the nation's electorate for democrats)
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Given how big a supporter I was at the time of taking out Saddam, I’m willing to admit I was wrong. Rand is right on this one.


54 posted on 04/27/2015 8:05:14 PM PDT by beanshirts
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To: WilliamIII

Tell me that you agree that Paul was an idiot, don’t ignore the post.


55 posted on 04/27/2015 8:05:45 PM PDT by ansel12 (LEGAL immigrants, 30 million 1980-2012, continues to remake the nation's electorate for democrats)
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To: Republican Wildcat

Iraq got a new Shiite government under Bush — years before Obama came in. the new leaders, who replaced Saddam, were Shiites who’d been living in Iran in exile, when Saddam was in power. Iraq became an Iranian allly when these guys took over the government.

and all that happened when Bush was president.


56 posted on 04/27/2015 8:06:13 PM PDT by WilliamIII
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To: Theodore R.

We should be very competitive for governor this time around.


57 posted on 04/27/2015 8:06:45 PM PDT by Republican Wildcat
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To: Republican Wildcat
Rand Paul is correct to blame the Bush administration for that idiocy. By the time Bush left office in January 2009 the military campaign in Iraq had already lasted longer than the World War I and World War II combined.

It's kind of pathetic that a Republican president in the 21st century will be remembered as a modern-day version of the last @sshole to go to the White House from Texas (Lyndon Johnson).

58 posted on 04/27/2015 8:07:09 PM PDT by Alberta's Child ("It doesn't work for me. I gotta have more cowbell!")
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To: Republican Wildcat

Agreed on all points. Leaving no troops behind was a disaster. Left them in Germany, Japan, Korea...


59 posted on 04/27/2015 8:07:24 PM PDT by dp0622 (Franky Five Angels: "Look, let's get 'em all -- let's get 'em all now, while we got the muscle.")
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To: laplata
No he is not. Saddam was a Nazi and a Caliphatist, and he did have to be gotten rid of; he would not have been a bulwark against Islamic terrorism should he have actually conquered. Whatever mess came of the Iraq war was from the interference of domestic liberal traitors in DC acting as the fifth column; certainly the surge showed that force could work if the pressure was kept on, and anyone who disagrees with that is, with all due respect, agreeing with Obama.

Slightly off-topic, but I found an online copy of The Naked Communist by Cleon Skousen, which is the book that the 45 communist goals for the USA are listed. It has far, far more good stuff than that, and the tactics against Marxism are just as applicable today against Islamic terrorism—and most importantly, it urges the US populace to resist pacifism, disarmament and the notion of “coexistence” since those originated with the communists as their slogans.
60 posted on 04/27/2015 8:08:12 PM PDT by Olog-hai
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