On Friday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “O’Reilly Factor,” Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) said he was “comforted” by newly-announced National Security Adviser Retired Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn stating it was a strategic failure to go into Iraq and that the US needs a “new” agreement with Iran.
Rand said he would ask Mitt Romney, a potential Secretary of State nominee, “Do you think the Iraq War was a mistake? Have we learned a lesson that regime change is not a good thing?”
He continued, “So, for example, one of Donald Trump’s first picks today, Mike Flynn, to be National Security Adviser, he has said that the historical lesson we should is that it was a strategic failure, going into Iraq. I’m comforted by that. I’m hopeful that Mike Flynn will be giving him the advice that a lot of us have come to understand about the Middle East. Romney, I’m not sure. I don’t think he’s way out there on the extreme edge of the, you know, the war-making cliff like Bolton or even Giuliani, but I would want to ask those same questions to Romney as well.”
When asked about the Iran deal, Rand answered, “I think most people misinterpret the Iran agreement. I was against the agreement because I didn’t think it did enough, but it did do some things. It gave a bunch of money to Iran early on, which I disagreed with. That money’s already been given. And now Iran is expected to comply with nuclear sanctions, not conventional weapon sanctions, but nuclear sanctions. So far, there hasn’t been evidence presented that they have not adhered to the nuclear sanctions. what everybody’s complaining about, I still complain about as well, is that they keep sending arms to other proxy groups, fighting in wars around the Middle East, and that they keep developing conventional weapons, but that wasn’t part of the agreement. So really what you need is a new agreement. Now, whether or not they are negotiating partner that we can rely on, that’s the real question.”
He also commented on Ford deciding to keep on of its plants in Kentucky rather than move it to Mexico, stating, “I think there are things that could be done with the bully pulpit, and I think we can expect Donald Trump will use the bully pulpit, and I’m hoping that in the future we will be able to say to people, that, you know what? Just like in our defense, we will negotiate from a position of strength. in our trade, we should negotiate from position of strength. I don’t know who gets all the credit, butIi’m more than willing to give Donald credit some — Donald Trump some of the credit for keeping Ford in Louisville.”
Rand added, “[I]f we want to keep American companies here, is one thing we can do to make it better for them to allow them to compete and so they don’t flee our country, reduce the tax burden.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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