Politics

Rand Responds To Jeb On Iraq: It’s Not ‘Just Hypothetical,’ Invasion ‘Was A Mistake’ [VIDEO]

Al Weaver Reporter
Font Size:

One day after Jeb Bush tried to best to clean up his Iraq War mess, Sen. Rand Paul took to the air to blast back at his potential 2016 rival.

In an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, the 2016 candidate hit Bush’s response to his original comments, in which he told Sean Hannity Tuesday that while “mistakes were made” he didn’t want to get into hypothetical questions of what he would have done at the time.

Paul told the CNN anchor that the question isn’t “just hypothetical,” adding that “invading Iraq was a mistake.”

“It’s a really important question and I don’t think it’s just hypothetical. We seem to have a recurring question in the Middle East whether not it’s a good idea to topple a secular strong man or secular dictators and what happens after that,” Paul told the CNN host. “Hillary Clinton’s war in Libya was the same scenario. We toppled [Muammar] Gaddafi, a secular dictator, but we got chaos and the rise of radicals Islam and I think we’re more threatened now. I think the same was true of Saddam Hussein.”

“I think Iran is now stronger and emboldened. In many ways, Iraq is sort of a vassal state to Iran. We worry about Iran getting a nuclear weapon. So I think we’re a lot worse off with Hussein gone. There’s a civil war going on there. We were also making the mistake to try to degraded Assad, because as we degraded the strong man Assad, ISIS grew,” Paul said. “So I think there’s a consistent theme here that every candidate should be asked, and that is is it a go ahead idea to go into the Middle East, topple governments and hope something better rises out of the chaos because recent history seems to show that, you know what, we’re not getting something better, we’re getting something worse.”

“I think, even at the time invading Iraq was a mistake and I thought the war even at the time was a mistake given the intelligence, but now, I think that people should learn their lesson after the war in Libya,” Paul said. “Everybody needs to be asked — all the Republicans should be asked, did you and do you support Hillary’s war in Libya. And so I think as these questions get asked, we really get to the answer of who Republicans want to lead the country, who do Americans want to lead the country. Someone who will perpetually get us involved in foreign war over there when the result is not to America’s best interest, or someone who will be more reluctant. I think that will be one of our big debates over the next year.”

WATCH: 

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel