Ever since ISIS beheaded two Americans in Iraq, thereby convincing millions in the U.S. that they were sharpening their scimitars to do the same in Des Moines, Republican politicians who don’t insist that they’re fixin’ to kick some major though unspecified Middle Eastern ass in the near though not yet determined future have been hard to find. Rand “Peaceman” Paul in particular has been backing and filling like Indiana Gov. Mike Spence before a gay wedding cake. But all of a sudden Rand has let Rand be Rand, and Jennifer Rubin be damned. Speaking in New Hampshire, Rand just got crazy all of a sudden and said his Republican rivals would be worse than Obama:
“There’s a group of folks in our party who would have troops in six countries right now — maybe more. This is something, if you watch closely, that will separate me from many other Republicans. The other Republicans will criticize Hillary Clinton and the president for their foreign policy, but they would have done the same thing – just 10 times over!”
Paul even dared to get specific, bragging about voting against aid for the Syrian rebels and saying that the two million Christians living in Syria were better off under Syrian “strongman” Bashar al-Assad than they would be under a new ruler, whoever that might happen to be. And as if that weren’t enough cognitive dissonance for a dozen Republican primary cattle calls, Paul went on to put in a good word for the Fourth Amendment, claiming that the federal government shouldn’t be rooting through our phone records.
I’m not sure if Rand can stand acting this crazy for very long, but, hey, it’s great to hear someone in Washington speak sense about the Middle East, even if it’s only for one night.
