Rand Paul: Let’s face it, it was a mistake to topple Saddam Hussein

Hotair ^ | 04/27/2015 | AllahPundit

[SeekAndFind]

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?

[ansel12]

We did the right thing, we just can’t get any solid footing with immigrants out voting us.

At best we get a narrow victory, and then the left just undoes everything. There is no longer any national will in America, no overall plan of we win, they lose, no national identity, or national goals, or national anything, no us against them.

We were right to penetrate into the heart of Islam, we just didn’t hold and consolidate our gains and follow a 50 year plan to rehabilitate and reshape the Middle East.

[Olog-hai]

Correct.

[PGR88]

Next: Did we really have to fight Hitler?

Maybe yes, but why not let him and Stalin beat each other senseless for a few years first? The Allies went to war over a free Poland, and wound up condemning it to a Soviet prison anyway.

[4rcane]

It was Obama’s foreign policy in Iraq, Egypt, Libya, Syria and Yemen that led to Islamists taking control. While the Iraq War preceded what is happening in Middle East, it was not the cause. I remember “Arab Spring”, US troops withdrawal, and arming of rebels preceding it - all happening during Obama admin

[Jim Noble]

I agree completely.

Saddam and his army should have been used to conquer Saudi Arabia, then turned into Iran to meet the joint US-Indian task force coming through Afghanistan after the conquest of Pakistan.

[crz]

Would the Pauls like to explain the phrase “Law of Nations” in the constitution to us?

They are no better than the liberals in picking and choosing the bits they like in the document.

[Olog-hai]

Sure, and allow Hitler to gain nuclear weapons by allowing him to keep von Braun and others.

[Alberta's Child]

I thought his plan would be to take on Iraq, capture the oil fields, secure our oil supply, and then take on the Saudis, who were the real force behind 9/11.

If you really think anyone in the Bush administration -- or anyone in the Beltway GOP, for that matter -- would have "taken on the Saudis," then you're delusional. The U.S. military has been functioning as an armed mercenary group for the Saudi royal family for decades.

[RC one]

I was never for it and said so at the time. I said so to my battalion commander who was very gung ho to go as were most of the soldiers in my unit.

I always figured that Iran and North Korea would be the big winners and nothing useful would come of it.

[ansel12]

It was also a mistake to arm the mujaheddin against the Soviets.

You have got to be kidding, you would rather have the Soviet Union back and perhaps WWIII having been fought and lost by now, and us and Europe being destroyed?

[laplata]

Spin, spin, spin.

Paul is correct on this.

[Olog-hai]

And then Saddam would have turned towards the Great and Little Satans afterward anyway, being so empowered. Forgot Saddam’s support of the “Palestinians” and regarding Israel as the number-one regional enemy?

Any of these actors’ moves is towards restoration of the Caliphate, typically in the image of the winner. And Saddam modeled himself on Umar, the third Caliph.

[dfwgator]

Why get involved in intra-arab squabbles? What makes Kuwait so great?

[JohnBrowdie]

Perspective is important. Nothing that was intentionally given back after being won was ultimately worth fighting for.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Uh, because he declared war on us on December 11, 1941?

[Theodore R.]

I definitely remember on more than one occasion that one GWB vowed this would “not be another Vietnam.” And, no, I am not for GWB’s brother for President.

[GBA]

I think we've spent a lot of lives and money to figure out the limits of American power and of our former ideology.

Like the commercial used to say, "It's not your father's Oldsmobile" and it's not our father's country or world.

Speaking of fathers:

"I have always given it as my decided opinion that no nation has a right to intermeddle in the internal concerns of another;
that every one has a right to form and adopt whatever government they liked best to live under themselves;
and that if this country could, consistently with its engagements, maintain a strict neutrality and thereby preserve peace,
it was bound to do so by motives of policy, interest, and every other consideration."
--George Washington, from Letter to James Monroe, August 25,1796

-------------

"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.
So far as we have already formed engagements let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith.
Here let us stop."
-- George Washington, farewell address, 1796

Good advice. Not too shabby for an old white guy...maybe we should try it on for size.

[ansel12]

By the way, here is some insight into Rand Paul's knowledge of the military.

Rand Paul will become a national prophet when Ebola wipes out our military because of the troop ships returning from Africa.

He also criticized President Obama’s decision to send some 3,000 military members to West Africa. “You also have to be concerned about 3,000 soldiers getting back on a ship. Where is disease most transmittable? When you’re in a very close confines on a ship, we all know about cruises and how they get these diarrhea viruses that are transmitted very easily,” he said. “Can you imagine if a whole ship full of our soldiers catch Ebola?”

[A Navy Vet]

"All the way back to the Iraq War, I think it was a mistake to topple [Saddam] Hussein. Hussein was the bulwark against Iran. The Sunnis didn’t like the Shiites, now Iraq is a vassal state for Iran,” Mr. Paul, the libertarian-leaning Kentucky senator, said. “I’m worried [Iran] is twice as strong as it was before the Iraq War.”…

“Each time we topple a secular dictator, I think we wind up with chaos and radical Islam seems to rise,” he said. He argued that any attempt to dethrone Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad would lead to the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, being “in charge of Damascus.”

Don't care for Rand's isolationist views, but he couldn't be more right on this. The Middle East is now even a bigger powder keg. Although every one in the World believed Saddam had WMD, and I supported Bush at the time, I now have second thoughts.

Maybe if Obama had insisted on a "forces of agreement" upon our pull out, things would have turned out better. And then if Obama hadn't bowed to every Muslim potentate and hadn't invaded Libya, things would be better there also. His obvious affiliation with all things Islam and his non-support for our Allies is also a reason why the ME is burning.

My bottome line: Thousands of our best dead and many more thousands maimed for what?. My only hope is now with the Saudi Arabi alliance against Iran, even though I despise the Saudis and their version of Islam. At least it keeps them all fighting each other. Also, never thought I would see so many Muslim nations consider aligning with Israel.

[ansel12]

It isn’t a Vietnam.