Republican presidential candidate Kentucky Senator Rand Paul argued the US should get out of Afghanistan immediately on Thursday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Wolf.”
Rand said of President Obama’s decision to delay the scheduled withdrawal from Afghanistan, “I think it’s a mistake. It’s also not what our founding fathers intended. our founding fathers intended that when we were to go to war, that congress would debate this, and this would be approved or disapproved by Congress. i don’t know what our mission is. i would have voted for the original mission, to go Bin Laden and those who attacked us on 9/11. We have bin laden. we have the people who attacked us on 9/11. What is our mission? To build a nation? Well, frankly, we’re not very good at building nations, and I’m not for having our military stay indefinitely in Afghanistan to build a nation.”
He added that locals should take care of their own country, and “We’ve spent more in Afghanistan, using equivalent dollars than we did in the Marshall Plan. how much time and how much money is it going to take? i think people will not stand up and defend themselves until they’re asked to. And I think the people who live in Afghanistan, should stand up and say, ‘Do you want to let the Taliban, these thugs, run you over? Are you willing to stand up fight?’ And you know what, I think they would stand up and fight, and we can aid them in a way, but i don’t think we need troops there.”
When asked if he would “get out right away?” Rand answered, “Yeah, I don’t think we need to be in Afghanistan.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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