Rand: I’d Arm the Kurds and ‘Offer Them a Homeland’

Kentucky Senator and GOP presidential candidate Rand Paul said “I would arm the Kurds, and I would also offer them a homeland” in an interview broadcast on Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “New Day.”

Rand was asked if the Iraq War was a mistake, he responded, “Yes. And I think the reason it’s a mistake is still an important one for us going forward because we’ve had the same question repeatedly. Is it a good idea to go in and topple a secular dictator and try to build a nation? Are we good at building a nation, and can we build nations in our own image? I think really every time we’ve toppled a secular dictator in the Middle East we’ve gotten something worse and something less stable.”

He continued that the question regarding the Iraq War, “shows some differences between the candidates. And I think if people want another Iraq War, they know who they can vote for. If they want someone who’s not very likely to have another Iraq War and will only go to war when we have to, when it’s the last resort, when we have to defend America or American interests, there are going to be some other alternatives.”

Rand added, “people are now saying, ‘we should have just stayed.’ But we stayed for a decade, we trained them [the Iraqi Army] for a decade. We’ve given them billions of dollars in weapons. And I’ve jokingly said, you know what, what we should have bought them is tearaway uniforms, so when they run they can tear their uniforms off quicker. However, the Kurds are a different story. The Kurds are good fighters. I would go one step further, I would arm the Kurds, and I would also offer them a homeland. If you will fight and if you will fight to keep people out and to push out these marauders, I’d give you a homeland.” He also stated that he is “all for the US helping and supporting the Iraqis” with air power and arms.

He then stated that if ISIS was encroaching on Baghdad, he would, in addition to air support and arming the Kurds, use “assistance to the Sunni chieftains to encourage their support.”

Later, the interview turned to surveillance of terrorists and the Patriot Act, Rand said, “I’m all for going after terrorists. I’m all for the NSA looking at records. But they need to look at records of individuals. This is about the Fourth Amendment. The Fourth Amendment says the name has to be on the warrant. You can’t put Verizon on a warrant and look at all Verizon customers. … I don’t care how many hops into the records you go, as long as you have suspicion, someone’s name on the warrant, and a judge signs the warrant.”

Regarding the Patriot Act, he declared, “I will do whatever it takes to stop it. Whether or not I’m allowed to filibuster is another question. There’s a sort of paper filibuster that you can always do, demanding that there’s 60 votes and objecting, not giving them consent to proceed. That I will do. So, I will do a formal filibuster.”

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