The U.S. airstrikes against the Islamic State (ISIS) are helping bolster the extremist group's recruiting efforts, according to former Rep. Ron Paul of Texas."They like us dropping bombs," Paul said Wednesday on "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV. "Because every time there's a bomb dropped or every time somebody over there gets killed by an American bomb, they get a tremendous boost to their recruitment."Paul — founder of Campaign for Liberty and father of Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky — believes the U.S. government helped pave the way for Islamic terror groups with its intervention in the Middle East."You understand that none of that existed before we went in and before al-Qaida existed," he said."We set the groundwork for al-Qaida because we got rid of [Saddam] Hussein and we stirred up the trouble by joining the forces to get rid of [Syrian President Bashar al-] Assad."We left a lot of weapons over there. How can we ignore that? Isn't that a pretty obvious fact of how they organized and what's motivated [them]?Paul said he is wary of the claim by Rep. Duncan Hunter of California that 10 Islamic State fighters have been caught crossing the Mexico border."It can't be, but sometimes we go to war under rumors. We go to war so often based on lies," Paul said."We went into Vietnam based on lies and we went into Iraq on lies. Before we get too carried away, check it out and find out what's happening."