Rand is Real Great on Wars That are Over

Politico reports:

Sen. Rand Paul...spoke here at the Iowa Republican Party’s Lincoln Day Dinner Saturday night [and took] a shot at Jeb Bush over his comments last week about the Iraq War....

 “We had a question this week that was asked to a certain candidate who used to be the governor of Florida who’s running in the Republican primary,” Paul said. “And the question was: Knowing what you know now do you think it was a good idea to topple Hussein, to begin the war in Iraq?"...

Paul then pivoted and turned his attacks on Hillary Clinton, the likely Democratic nominee, who he said needs to answer difficult questions herself.

“I’ve got a question for Hillary Clinton: Was it a good idea going to Libya? Was it a good idea to topple Gaddafi?” Paul said, referring to Libya’s former dictator. “It’s the same answer: No.”

However, his view is horrific on actual current US meddling overseas.

MSNBC reports:

After expressing reluctance to intervene against ISIS over the summer, Sen. Rand Paul abruptly shifted gears on Thursday and announced that he supports military action to eliminate the Islamist group. 

“The military means to achieve these goals include airstrikes against ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria,” the Kentucky Republican and likely 2016 presidential hopeful wrote in an op-ed in TIME. “Such airstrikes are the best way to suppress ISIS’s operational strength and allow allies such as the Kurds to regain a military advantage.”...“Some pundits are surprised that I support destroying the Islamic State in Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) militarily,” he said. “They shouldn’t be. I’ve said since I began public life that I am not an isolationist, nor am I an interventionist. I look at the world, and consider war, realistically and constitutionally.” 

In TIME, Rand on Ukraine:

Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is a gross violation of that nation’s sovereignty and an affront to the international community. His continuing occupation of Ukraine is completely unacceptable, and Russia’s President should be isolated for his actions....I recommend a number of specific and decisive measures to punish Putin for his ongoing aggression...I would reinstitute the missile-defense shields President Obama abandoned in 2009 in Poland and the Czech Republic...

From war to taxes, Rand muddies every position in relation to principled libertarian positions. He never stands against government intervention on domestic and foreign positions, he just shifts the focus of the intervention---and claims anti-interventionism.

The more and more I see of Rand, the more and more, he appears to be promoted in a way similar to the way Ronald Reagan was (though Rand has none of the delivery skills of Reagan). promoyed by the establishment, as a way to misdirect softcore libertarians.

Murray Rothbard nailed it on Reagan:



 -RW