Rand Paul: This is not foreign policy

Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) writes in The Wall Street Journal about how US failed foreign policy has created greater instability in the Middle East and urges caution before engaging the US in another conflict. Senator Paul reminds readers about how the Obama Administration was clamoring for a war in Syria last September before wide public outrage from both sides of the political spectrum forced the administration to back down. Campaign for Liberty was one of many groups who voiced concern about the US engaging in another war abroad.

In the op-ed Senator Paul also discusses how United States foreign policy has even strengthened ISIS and how our knee-jerk foreign policy is really no foreign policy at all.

From The Wall Street Journal:

To interventionists like former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, we would caution that arming the Islamic rebels in Syria created a haven for the Islamic State. We are lucky Mrs. Clinton didn't get her way and the Obama administration did not bring about regime change in Syria. That new regime might well be ISIS. This is not to say the U.S. should ally with Assad. But we should recognize how regime change in Syria could have helped and emboldened the Islamic State, and recognize that those now calling for war against ISIS are still calling for arms to factions allied with ISIS in the Syrian civil war. We should realize that the interventionists are calling for Islamic rebels to win in Syria and for the same Islamic rebels to lose in Iraq. While no one in the West supports Assad, replacing him with ISIS would be a disaster. Our Middle Eastern policy is unhinged, flailing about to see who to act against next, with little thought to the consequences. This is not a foreign policy.

The entire thing is worth a read here.