Rand Paul is pushing the GOP to confront its terrorism problem. Too bad the other 2016 candidates won't listen.

Will anyone else talk about the unintended consequences of the war on terror?

Rand Paul

Any time there's a genuine difference of opinion concerning a policy issue within a presidential primary it's worthy of note, even if there's only one candidate standing apart from the others. Rand Paul may be the one you'd expect would dissent from his peers when it comes to foreign policy, but he nevertheless surprised many when he said on Wednesday that it was his own party that bore responsibility for the rise of ISIS.

When asked on Morning Joe how he'd respond to attacks from foreign policy hawks like Lindsey Graham, Paul responded, "ISIS exists and grew stronger because of the hawks in our party who gave arms indiscriminately, and most of these arms were snatched up by ISIS." He even tied his Republican colleagues to the despised Hillary Clinton: "ISIS is all over Libya because these same hawks in my party loved Hillary Clinton's war in Libya, they just wanted more of it."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Paul Waldman

Paul Waldman is a senior writer with The American Prospect magazine and a blogger for The Washington Post. His writing has appeared in dozens of newspapers, magazines, and web sites, and he is the author or co-author of four books on media and politics.