Rand Paul praises Trump for Syria withdrawal: 'This is exactly what he promised'

[jct74]

Rand Paul praises Trump for Syria withdrawal: 'This is exactly what he promised'

By Valerie Richardson
December 23, 2018

Many if not most Republicans were taken aback by President Trump’s decision to pull U.S. troops from Syria and Afghanistan, but not Sen. Rand Paul.

The Kentucky Republican and libertarian standard-bearer said he was “very proud” of Mr. Trump for his decision last week to exit Syria, which spurred both Defense Secretary James Mattis and presidential special envoy Brett McGurk to submit their resignations.

“I’m very proud of the president. This is exactly what he promised,” said Mr. Paul on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “And I think the people agree with him actually. I think people believe we’ve been at war too long in too many places, and we do need to turn attention to problems we have at home here: roads, bridges, schools.”

He argued that such policies contributed to Mr. Trump’s unexpected election victory in 2016.

“We’ve spent several trillion dollars on these wars everywhere, and I think the president promised he’d be different, and it’s really one of the reasons he won,” Mr. Paul said. “Because he actually attracts independents who aren’t beholden to either party who say, you know what? Why don’t we turn attention back to America?”

...

read more:
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news...withdrawal-ex/

[jct74]

“In the last 20 years,” Tapper asked the non-interventionist Republican, “is there any act with U.S. Intervention with military force abroad that you support?”

“Yes. After we were attacked on 9/11, I did support to go into Afghanistan. I would’ve voted for the resolution,” replied Paul. “But we’re ignoring the resolution, it said we’d go after those who planned, abetted, aided the people who attacked us. It never said anything about associated forces. It never said anything about war in Yemen, Somalia, Mali, Syria. None of this was ever authorized by Congress. So what we’re doing in like seven different war theaters right now is unconstitutional and we shouldn’t be doing it.”

...

“It doesn’t work to have Americans there, policing Muslim lands. It just engenders more terrorism. The longer Americans stay, the more terrorism you’ll have,” he said. He indicated that American forces are so “forward-deployed” around the globe that “we can attack on a moment’s notice from anywhere,” and that therefore withdrawal doesn’t mean being unable to act or intervene in the future.

“But really the people who live there, the Muslims who live in these lands need to police the Muslims who live in these lands,” he said. “If it’s Americans it will always be seen as those who live there as some sort of religious crusade and it encourages more terrorism.”

...

https://www.mediaite.com/tv/rand-pau...ng-themselves/

[jct74]

Lots of Trump supporters are ready for Rand 2024 it seems...

https://www.reddit.com/r/The_Donald/...onal_treasure/

[Superfluous Man]

Well, yeah, but pretty much everything conceivable was something he promised at some point, including promises to do the exact opposite of the other promises he made.

[specsaregood]

Well, yeah, but pretty much everything conceivable was something he promised at some point, including promises to do the exact opposite of the other promises he made.

It looks to me like Randal's strategy of disagreeing gently and pointing out how his disagreements align with Trumps campaign promises and at the same time defending him articulately and boisterously when they agree is paying dividends. Definitely more productive than others strategy of attacking Trump on every issue all the time.