Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) argued that the US has made ISIS stronger by being “allied with them in Syria” in an interview on “The Sean Hannity Show.” Paul stated that while there were many causes to ISIS’ strength, he declared “one of the reason’s they’re stronger is that we have been allied with them in Syria we’ve been funding Islamic rebels…to fight against Iranian proxies in Syria, but now, on the other side of the world, we’d be siding with the Iranian Guard.”
After Hannity blamed President Barack Obama’s policies for the deteriorating situation in Iraq, Paul countered that “we shouldn’t always say that it is just our fault, or any one person’s fault over here,” and argued that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki deserved a large chunk of the blame.
He further said that if the US had left a residual force in Iraq, it is possible “we would be back in the middle of a war right now.” Paul also clarified that he believed the troop surge worked, and later stated that no one is blameless for the chaos in Iraq, but declared that putting troops in and “trying to build a country” doesn’t work.
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