Paul says he is not completely opposed to helping with arms. Paul not opposed to Iraq bombing

After remaining quiet about recent U.S military action in Iraq, Sen. Rand Paul, whose foreign policy views have ignited a debate within the Republican Party, says he has “mixed feelings” about the American airstrikes.

The Kentucky Republican, who has come under fire within the GOP for what has been called his isolationist approach, noted that many supporters of strikes against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant militants also called for airstrikes against Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime last year.


“I have mixed feelings about it,” the senator said Monday evening of the recent strikes against ISIL targets. “I’m not saying I’m completely opposed to helping with arms or maybe even bombing, but I am concerned that ISIS is big and powerful because we protected them in Syria for a year. Do you know who also hates ISIS and who is bombing them? Assad, the Syrian government.”

“So a year ago, the same people who want to bomb ISIS wanted to bomb Syria last year,” he continued in remarks were first reported by WBKO.

The U.S. has used airstrikes authorized last week by President Barack Obama to stem ISIL’s momentum and try to prevent greater violence against religious minorities near the Kurdish capital of Erbil.

Paul, a potential 2016 presidential candidate, had previously been quiet about the attacks. The senator has been outspoken against the more hawkish wings of the Republican Party, and his critics have accused him of adopting a naive, isolationist stance. He has recently come under fire for his views on Iraq from Republicans including Sen. John McCain of Arizona and has repeatedly sparred with Texas Gov. Rick Perry on several national security issues.

On Monday, he continued to rail against the neoconservative wing of his party. “There are a lot of people, independent or Democrat, that would like a reasonable foreign policy where we’re not always at war,” he said. “Where we are reluctant to go to war, where we have more of a moderate foreign policy, I think is appealing to a lot of people.”