Even as polls show that something around 75% of Americans oppose the re-involvement of Us.S troops in Iraq, Dick Cheney continues his rants against Barack Obama and continues to claim that Iraq can be turned around. One has to wonder how many trillions of dollars and how many more American lives must be wasted before the pompous and arrogant Cheney might ever admit that he was wrong in 2003 and he's wrong now. Perhaps because he is watching polling results or because he is merely disgusted with Cheney and his goons, Rand Paul is challenging the standard GOP/neocon gospel on waging endless war. Perhaps an even bigger heresy is Paul's statement that - unlike Cheney - he does not blame Barack Obama for the problems which are the outcome of Bush/Cheney's lies and delusions. Here are excerpts from Time:
Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul is firing back at his party’s interventionist wing, saying those who supported the Iraq war “emboldened Iran,” while freeing President Barack Obama of blame for the current crisis in Iraq.
In a Meet the Press interview airing this [past] Sunday, the 2016 presidential hopeful and libertarian icon responded to an op-ed by former Vice President Dick Cheney criticizing Obama’s handling of the situation in Iraq.
“I think the same questions could be asked of those who supported the Iraq War,” Paul said. “You know, were they right in their predictions? Were there weapons of mass destruction there? That’s what the war was sold on. Was democracy easily achievable? Was the war won in 2005, when many of these people said it was won? They didn’t really, I think, understand the civil war that would break out.”
Paul added that he doesn’t blame Obama for the ongoing turmoil in Iraq, but he questions whether the President has a solution to the crisis, during which Sunni militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) have seized vast territory and pushed the Iraqi military back to the outskirts of Baghdad.
“And what’s going on now—I don’t blame on President Obama,” Paul said. “Has he really got the solution? Maybe there is no solution. But I do blame the Iraq War on the chaos that is in the Middle East. I also blame those who were for the Iraq War for emboldening Iran. These are the same people now who are petrified of what Iran may become, and I understand some of their worry.”
I continue to find Rand Paul scary on a number of issues, but is refreshing that at least on occasion one Republican can be in touch with objective reality and not insist on following the same failed policies that created the fiasco in Iraq and the larger Middle East.
No comments:
Post a Comment