Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul tells
Newsmax TV it is non-interventionist voices such as his that have kept the Islamic State (ISIS) from completely taking over Syria.
In an interview aired Monday on "The Hard Line," the GOP presidential hopeful told host Ed Berliner that the United States should go to war only when American interest is involved, such as after the 9/11 attacks, but should not attempt nation-building.
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"For example, in Syria, should we have sent all those weapons in to Islamic rebels who hate us and hate Israel, as well?" Paul asked. "Many of them who have said, when they're done with Assad, they're going to attack Israel."
Many of Paul's colleagues in the Senate, including Sens. Lindsey Graham and John McCain have long pushed for American military action against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in that country's three-way civil war between Assad's government, the U.S.-backed Free Syrian rebels and ISIS.
"Had we bombed Assad, like the interventionists on both sides of the aisle wanted to do and I opposed, today ISIS would be in Damascus and they would rule all of Syria," Paul said. "So people need to be happy that I'm here in the Senate and that I'm providing a voice for saying, let's don't be reckless."
War should be entered only as a last resort, Paul said, adding that it is impossible to help every group of people who are being wronged.
Throughout the existence of the Soviet Union, they killed millions of their people, but America didn't choose to go to war with Russia in order to save those people, he said.
Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong killed millions of their own people, but the United States didn't have the ability to step in, Paul said.
"It's terrible what autocrats and dictators do around the world, but we can't always be everywhere all the time, nor do we have the money to do it," he said.
As for Afghanistan, where President Barack Obama just announced he will leave 5,500 troops past his previous deadline, Paul said there is no way to build a nation in that country.
"Afghanistan is a conglomeration of various tribes. They don't even speak the same language. They have local chieftains," he said. "They're just not really a country, and we're not very good at nation-building."
The Constitution gives power to Congress not the president, to declare war precisely for the purpose of avoiding "eternal war around the globe."
"There's always a war somewhere, and there's always some sympathy for those who are losing the war, or at the wrong end of the war, but we just can't be in every war, and we don't have any money," Paul said.
"We're having to borrow money from China to spend it in Afghanistan. So it's not a very conservative notion, nor is it a wise decision."
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